Tracheabronchial Foreign Body Aspirations in Children

Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a serious problem especially in pediatric age group. Delay in diagnosis and intervention can lead to a life-threatening condition. Young children are more concerned with the environment and neuromuscular mechanisms do not develop sufficiently. Factors such as lack of molar teeth and failure to perform chewing are the main causes of high FBA in children under 3 years of age. It is of vital importance that the patient is referred to a hospital where a rigid bronchoscopy can be performed quickly after the diagnosis. We retrospectively evaluated 47 patients who were treated in our clinic such as clinical symptoms, age, gender, foreign body (FB), location, positive radiological findings, and duration of stay.

47 patients; 29 male (63%), 18 female (37%), age ranging from 3 months to 8 years. The age of the 37 patients (80%) was below the age of 3 years. The main complaint at the time of admission was cough (80%) in 37 patients, wheezing in 23 patients (50%), shortness of breath in 15 patients (32.6%), infection in 5 patients (10.8%), high in 2 patients. there was fever (4.3%). In 37 patients (78%), the foreign body was of organic origin (such as inside or outside the shell, peanuts, hazelnut pieces) while in 10 patients (22%), an inorganic foreign object was found (such as a pen tip, a toy part, plastic parts, etc.). FB was located in the right main bronchus in 18 patients (39%), in the left main bronchus in 25 patients (51%) and in the trachea in 4 patients (8.7). There were no radiological findings in 18 patients (39%). Although 11 patients (23.9%) were anamnesis, their findings were normal. Twenty-three patients applied to our clinic within the first 24 hours after the event, and 24 patients were admitted to our clinic 24 hours after the event.

Although the results were generally consistent with the literature, the left main bronchus was 51% in terms of the localization of FB.