It does not involve surgery, but rather encompasses a variety of techniques employed through the gastroscope for grasping foreign bodies, manipulating them, and removing them while protecting the esophagus and trachea.

[1] It is of particular importance with children,[2] people with mental illness,[3] and prison inmates[4] as these groups have a high rate of foreign body ingestion.

It is important that physicians treating these patients recognize the symptoms of esophageal foreign body impaction requiring urgent intervention.

Most frequently, these include drooling and the inability to swallow saliva, neck tenderness, regurgitation of food, stridor and shortness of breath if there is compression of the trachea.

Devices used include forceps, which come in varying shapes, sizes and grips,[12] snares, and oval loops that can be retracted from outside the gastroscope to lasso objects,[13] as well as Roth baskets (mesh nets that can be closed to trap small objects),[14] and magnets placed at the end of the scope or at the end of orogastric tubes.