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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Handheld Metal Detector Screening for Metallic Foreign Body Ingestion in Children
Published on: September 11, 2018
Sudden and unexpected death--a late effect of occult intraesophageal foreign body
R W Byard1, L Moore, A J Bourne
1Department of Histopathology, Adelaide Children's Hospital, Australia.
Abstract:
Acute upper airway obstruction in a 4-month-old male infant who presented as sudden infant death syndrome is described. At autopsy external tracheal compression and tracheobronchitis with plugging of the trachea and bronchi by an abundant mucopurulent exudate were found. The source of the inflammation was the adjacent esophagus where previous impaction of a coin had caused pressure necrosis with mucosal erosion and transmural granulation tissue formation. This case is reported to demonstrate that foreign bodies that remain in the esophagus, having by-passed the larynx, may still result in upper airway obstruction and death in early infancy by this unusual mechanism.
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