Foreign body aspiration: experience at the University Pediatric Hospital

Fifty eight patients were admitted to the University Pediatric Hospital with the diagnosis of foreign body aspiration from August 1986 to January 1991. Of this 58 admissions, 40 records were analyzed for incidence, clinical and radiological manifestations, morbidity and nature of the foreign material in an effort to compare our findings with those of other centers, including another previous study in our institution. Our data reveals that the event of aspiration of a foreign body was most common between 1 to 2 years of age, this comprises 18 (45%) of the cases; male to female ratio was 1:3; 17 (42.5%) cases were diagnosed during the first 24 hours of the event and another 42.5% were diagnosed after 48 hours. Coughing and a choking episodes were the most common signs of presentation with hyperaeration of the lung as the main radiological finding. The left main stem bronchus as the lodgement site and the peanut as the foreign object were the most common findings. The mortality ratio was 7.5%. It is important to make parents and health providers aware of patients at risk and knowledge of basic life support measures.