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Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Image Acquisition using Portable Sonography for Emergency Airway Management
Published on: September 28, 2022
Predictors of complicated airway foreign body extraction
Phayvanh P Sjogren1, Tyler J Mills1, Adrianna D Pollak1
1Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.
Objectives:
To evaluate outcomes of foreign body aspiration (FBA) and to investigate surgeon and hospital volume as risk factors for a complicated course.
Study Design:
Retrospective case series.
Methods:
Children with FBA in a multihospital network were identified from January 2005 to September 2015. Demographic information, surgeon, and hospital location were reviewed. Mean operative time and hospital length of stay were recorded. Cases requiring intensive care unit admission, hospital stay greater than 24 hours, need for more than one bronchoscopy, operative time greater than 1 hour, or death were considered "complicated."
Results:
A total of 450 cases of airway foreign body extraction were performed. Patient ages ranged from 0.6 to 18.8 years, with a median age of 1.9 years. Bronchoscopy with foreign body extraction was performed by 55 different surgeons at 11 different facilities. There were one to 24 surgeons for each facility, with an average number of 5.4 surgeons per facility. A total of 88 (19.6%) cases were considered complicated, including five (1.1%) deaths. Increased rates of complications were seen with unwitnessed aspiration (P = 0.008) and hyperlucency (P < 0.001) or infiltrates (P = 0.001) on chest radiographs. No significant association was found between surgeon type or facility as related to a complicated case.
Conclusions:
Unwitnessed aspiration events and abnormalities on chest radiograph may be associated with a more complicated course in children with FBA. This multihospital study identified a low number of procedures by many surgeons; however, surgeon and hospital volume did not significantly correlate with higher complication rates.
Level Of Evidence:
4. Laryngoscope, 128:490-495, 2018.
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