Diagnosis, management and complications of oesophageal and airway foreign bodies

A five-year experience at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital with 52 patients with oesophageal foreign bodies, six patients with airway foreign bodies and two patients with both oesophageal and airway obstruction from foreign bodies is presented. Our use of jet anaesthetic ventilation for endoscopic removal of airway foreign bodies, clinical features and management problems of foreign body patients are also presented. Oesophageal diameters at six levels including those known conventionally as constrictions and dilatations were measured at autopsy in 40 foetuses and neonates constituting a randomized quarter of a larger series. Oesophageal diameters were found to be wider just below the cricopharyngeus muscle than at the bronchoaortic constriction or midway between this constriction and the cricopharyngeus. The conclusion is drawn that the frequent impaction of foreign bodies at the so-called superior oesophageal constriction has little or no anatomical basis referrable to oesophageal diameters as measured in the cadaver.