Foreign body aspiration in children: a nationwide survey in Japan

Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a common cause for a respiratory emergency in young children and can be a life-threatening event. We, therefore, conducted the first nationwide survey in Japan.

We asked doctors of 261 tertiary hospitals across the nation to fill out a case card of FBA-diagnosed cases they had experienced for the past 2 years. In the case card, age and gender of the patients, elapsed time until being referred to the hospital, presenting symptoms, previous diagnosis, suspected aspiration episode, type and location of aspirated foreign body, and consequences were inquired. This retrospective survey was carried out during 21 months, since January 2005 through September 2006.

Replies from 169 hospitals (64.8%) revealed that 163 cases of FBA had been treated in 114 hospitals during the past 2 years. Median age of cases was 1 year (2 months to 15 years), and 66.5% were male. Only 50.9% of the cases were referred to hospitals within 24h. Comparing these early-diagnosed cases, children with delayed diagnosis had similar age and sex distribution. In respect of presenting symptoms, characteristic ones such as choking or dyspnea were observed significantly more often in the early-diagnosed cases, whereas significantly predominant symptoms in children with delayed diagnosis were non-specific ones like coughing and wheezing (both, p<0.05). Although significantly more cases with early diagnosis reported suspected aspiration episodes (p<0.05), even in the delayed diagnosis group more than half cases (65%) had suspected episodes as well. Severe consequences occurred in seven cases (4.3%): four cases of irreversible hypoxic brain damage and one death due to multiorgan failure in the early diagnosis group; one bronchiectasis and one recurrent pneumonia in the delayed diagnosis group.

Characteristics of FBA among children in Japan were not substantially different from the reports from other countries. Suspected episodes were important, and there were some differences in presenting symptoms between early and delayed diagnosis cases. However, there are still no key sings to make a prompt diagnosis. In order to prevent FBA and make a timely diagnosis, continuous and extensive educational programs should be provided.