There is one case in which a man of forty-seven suddenly died, after vomiting blood, and at the autopsy it was demonstrated that a needle had perforated the posterior wall of the esophagus and wounded the aorta.

Poulet has collected 31 cases in which ulceration caused by foreign bodies in the esophagus has resulted in perforation of the walls of some of the neighboring vessels.

The order of frequency was as follows: aorta, 17; carotids, four; vena cava, two; and one case each of perforation of the inferior thyroid artery, right coronary vein, demi-azygos vein, the right subclavicular artery (abnormal), and the esophageal artery.

In three of the cases collected there was no autopsy and the vessel affected was not known.
In a child of three years that had swallowed a half-penny, Atkins reports rupture of the innominate artery.

No symptoms developed, but six weeks later, the child had an attack of ulcerative stomatitis, from which it seemed to be recovering nicely, when suddenly it ejected two ounces of bright red blood in clots, and became collapsed out of proportion to the loss of blood.