Foreign body aspirations in childhood: A retrospective review

The aim of this study was to examine the childhood-age foreign body aspiration (FBA) retrospectively by focusing on symptoms, types, home interventions, hospitalization and complications.

All patients between 0-18 years admitted to pediatric surgical clinic and diagnosed with FBA were examined retrospectively from January 2021 to January 2022.

The study group consisted of 163 patients and their mean age was 17.8±12.7 months (1 months to 6 years). FBA events included aspiration of food (78%), coins (10%), batteries (3.7%), parts of toys (4%), buttons (2.4%) and other (2%). First aid treatment to children was performed at home by mothers (61%). Types of first aid treatment performed by mothers included tapping the back (31%); cleaning inside the mouth (24%); trying to remove the foreign body with fingers (12%), pushing the foreign body forward (5.9%) and forcing the child to vomit (9.5%) respectively.

FBA is a potential life-threatening health problem during childhood. When the age of majority of patients being under one year old and prevalence of food in FBA types are taken into consideration, safe-feeding practices of mothers, feeding position and training about the safe-environment are the basic steps of prevention strategies.

One of the most useful ways of preventing FBA cases is to provide planned and continuing education to parents, care givers and all the individuals responsible for the care of the child in order to increase their knowledge and practice levels.