Champagne: the safer choice for celebrations
BMJ 2007; 335 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39419.449942.AD (Published 20 December 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;335:1281A 24 year old Australian rules football player presented to the emergency department complaining of a sensation of a foreign body stuck in his throat. The sensation was associated “with an inability to breathe properly.” Earlier that day, when celebrating his team’s victory in the premiership, he had downed the remaining beer in the premiership cup, inadvertently swallowing a beer bottle cap.
Physical examination, radiography, and fibreoptic examination of the neck and throat were unremarkable. An anteroposterior chest radiogram showed a round metallic foreign body with scalloped edges at the level of the aortic arch (figure⇓). Blood ethanol level was 0.109 g/100 ml. A beer bottle cap was retrieved via endoscopy later that evening, without complications.
Excessive alcohol consumption as a celebratory consequence of high profile sporting victories is well known. Oesophageal obstruction from a bottle cap, however, is rarely seen in emergency departments.1 2 In suspected cases, airways obstruction and injury should be rapidly excluded.
A comprehensive Medline search failed to elicit an example of oesophageal obstruction secondary to the ingestion of a champagne (or wine) cork. Since the 18th century, champagne has been the beverage of choice for celebrations3 and on current evidence should remain so.
Footnotes
Competing interests: None declared.
Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.