[The "invisible" foreign body].

A 58-year-old female patient fell down a stairs carrying a plant pot. The bamboo stem penetrated the left lower lip and remained stuck in the throat. The patient pulled the bamboo stem out immediately. The lower lip was sutured and a tear in the mucous membrane in the tonsils was explored and cleansed. A foreign body could not be detected either clinically or by computed tomography (CT) of the neck. After 1 week a control CT of the neck was carried out because the patient complained of odynophagy and a putrid taste. An initially overlooked foreign body was now detected in the "lung window" and lay in an abscess cavity on the prevertebral surface. The foreign body was surgically removed with the patient under narcosis and there were no aftereffects.