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Updated: May 6, 2026

Handheld Metal Detector Screening for Metallic Foreign Body Ingestion in Children
Published on: September 11, 2018
Fatal aspiration of foreign bodies in infants and children
Andrew R Bamber1, Jeremy Pryce, Michael Ashworth
1Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Histopathology, London, United Kingdom.
Purpose:
To investigate the frequency, circumstances, demographics and autopsy findings of infants and children dying as a result of foreign body aspiration.
Methods:
Retrospective review of autopsy cases in children aged between seven days and 18 years, at one specialist centre over a 16-year period, in which death was the result of aspiration of a foreign body.
Results:
Ten cases were identified out of a total autopsy population of 2165. Only one individual had an underlying diagnosis potentially contributing to aspiration. All but one case involved aspiration of food, with grapes being a feature of four cases. In cases with a prolonged survival interval, autopsy demonstrated bronchopneumonia and hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. In the remaining cases autopsy findings were non-specific.
Conclusions:
Fatal aspiration of a foreign body is rare in this population. The cases involve normal children who aspirate food, particularly grapes. There are typically minimal, non-specific findings at autopsy.
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