A MULTIOBSERVER STUDY EXAMINING THE RADIOGRAPHIC VISIBILITY OF FISHBONE FOREIGN-BODIES

The use of plain radiographs to localize a suspected fishbone foreign body is the subject of controversy. Accordingly radiographs of 14 spec ies of fishbone, impacted in a soft tissue phantom, were assessed by a series of observers from the ENT department (consultant surgeons, sen ior registrars and house officers). The agreement was assessed by grap hical description of the data and tested by a Spearman's rank correlat ion test. The overall results showed that, for the clinician, radiogra phy is very useful to detect the bones of: cod, haddock, lemon sole, c ole fish, grey mullet and plaice; useful for red snapper, monk fish, g urnard and salmon; and unhelpful in detecting bones from herring, pike , mackerel and trout. The use of radiographs to locate these impacted fishbones can be rationalized in the light of these findings.