The “LIME Wedge”: A Technical Report on a 3D-Printed Radiologic Reference Device for Differentiating Button Battery and Coin Ingestion
Button battery ingestions are time-sensitive emergencies that require prompt identification and removal. Button batteries can be mistaken for coins, which can lead to dangerous delays in management. We designed the "LIME Wedge" radiologic reference device to hold four coins and one 20 mm button battery. We used a radiologic phantom to simulate button battery and coin ingestions on anterior and lateral chest X-ray (CXR) images. This series of images demonstrates how our tool can be used to help visually differentiate esophageal button batteries from coins. The LIME Wedge is an inexpensive, 3D-printed, radiologic tool that provides physicians with reference examples of various coins and a button battery in two radiologic planes. This radiologic tool is accessible for free download in the appendices.
Authors
- Carter Ware
- Timothy P. Young (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3674-8622)
- Heather M. Kuntz
- Peyton J Ware
- Amanda H Bjornstad
Institutions
- Texas Tech University (US)
- Loma Linda University Medical Center (US)
- The University of Texas at El Paso (US)
- Loma Linda University (US)
- University Medical Center of El Paso (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cureus
- Published
- 2026-04-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.106545
- Primary Topic
- Foreign Body Medical Cases
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00