[X-ray signs of foreign body aspiration in children]

Preoperative chest X-rays were taken in both postanterior and partially lateral views of 94 children with foreign-body aspiration. Additional fluoroscopy was employed in 70 patients. In 7% of the cases, the foreign body was radiopaque; in an equal amount of cases, there were no radiological findings. In the remaining results we observed: emphysema as an indirect radiological sign in two-thirds of the cases; in less than one-third, poststenotic atelectasis; pneumonia in 10%; bronchitis in 9%; pneumothorax in 2%.