Chennai: A 65-year old man accidentally swallowed his denture and doctors at a government hospital in Chennai removed it from the food pipe in a tricky surgery.

Chinnathambi, a resident of Neelangarai here, had swallowed a denture while sleeping. He recently underwent the surgery at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH). Doctors operating on him approached the dentures stuck in his food pipe through the neck.

"Endoscopy showed a denture with two hooks stuck to the wall of the food pipe, and endoscopic removal was deferred to avoid injury to food pipe," Dean, RGGGH and Madras Medical College Dr R Vimala said.

It was a "tricky" surgery, she said adding, "It was successfully done and the denture was removed without injury to food pipe or major blood vessels in close proximity." In the past five years, the hospital had treated 66 such cases where patients in the age group of 2-76 had ingested such articles, which got stuck in the oesophagus, a muscular tube connecting the throat with the stomach.

"Dentures were the most frequently ingested and impacted foreign body, 19 cases so far," she said.

Advising caution in using dentures, she said, "Dentures though useful, pose potential hazards and users must be cautious."