Barotraumatic perforation of the pharyngo-oesophagus secondary to a Lambrini "bottle explosion"

Abstract

An interesting case of a middle-aged woman who sustained oral lacerations and pharyngeal tear/perforation on opening a bottle of Lambrini sparkling wine with her teeth is presented. The patient presented to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department with bleeding from the mouth and dyspnoea, and on examination had a neck surgical emphysema and visible laceration to the oropharynx. On further investigation, including a range of imaging modalities, a diagnosis of pharyngeal tear/perforation was made, detected on a gastrograffin swallow test. The patient was subsequently treated conservatively, being kept nil by mouth and fed through a nasogastric tube, with prophylactic antibiotic cover. The patient was re-imaged 1 week later, which displayed complete resolution of the tear, and was subsequently discharged on a normal oral diet.

Delayed Diagnosis of Pharyngeal Perforation following Exploding Tyre Blast Barotrauma

“…Pharyngoesophageal perforation secondary to barotrauma historically has been mainly due to exploding drink bottles, often when the patient tries to open them with their teeth, but there have been less than 30 cases of this recorded in the English literature [ 1 , 2 ]. Vehicle or bicycle tyre explosion causing pharyngoesophageal barotrauma is an uncommon mechanism of insult.…”