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Holy mackerel! – Is fish bone ingestion a consequence of holidays? Objective: Fish bone ingestion is a common clinical complaint from patients treated at the ENT outpatient department. As eating habits depend on the season and one’s culture (e.g. increased fish consumption on Good Friday by Christians), we hypothesised that fish consumption is higher on holidays and weekends than during the week. Therefore, the present study investigated whether there is temporal clustering of fish bone ingestion.
Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with fish bone ingestion who attended our ENT outpatient department in Duesseldorf between 1/2010 and 1/2016. Based on the medical records, the exact date of ingestion was backtracked and correlated with German public holidays and the lunar calendar. Furthermore, patient-specific data (age, gender, religion, comorbidities) as well as the type of fish, location of the fish bone, and possible complications were assessed.
Results: Of 51 patients with fish bone ingestion, 20 were male (39%) and 31 were female (61%). The average age was 32 years. The frequency of fish bone ingestion was significantly higher between Friday and Monday than during the week. However, only three cases were recorded on a national holiday. Most fish bones were stuck in the tonsillar region.
Conclusions: While there was a significant increase in the cases of fish bone ingestion between Friday and Monday, national holidays seem to have no impact. As most of the fish bones were stuck in the tonsillar region and were found and removed successfully, the ENT specialist should be the first point of contact for patients with fish bone ingestion.