Abstract

Background: The foreign bodies can be either 1) Endogenous i.e, substance within the body 2) Exogenous foreign bodies a) Organic, b) Inorganic. The route of entry of foreign bodies into the aerodigestive tract is through nasal cavity or oral cavity.

The incidence of endogenous foreign bodies is rare. These are usually secretions in the tracheobronchial tree. The exogenous foreign bodies could be entered by either swallowing or aspiration. These substances are part of the food items i.e. peanuts, fish bones, seeds, chicken bones. Rest of the foreign bodies are part of substances, with which human beings come in contact in daily life which are accidentally aspirated or swallowed by children. These include buttons, coins, nuts, safety pins, nails and some metallic objects^[1].

Materials and Methods: The material is chiefly those patients who attended to out-patient department of ENT and casualty of King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam, with a history of foreign body aspiration or ingestion. In this 87 cases attending King George Hospital and Govt. ENT hospital from March, 2017 to March, 2019 were reviewed. Heamatological Examination, Urine Examination and Radiology are conducted on the 87 patients. The foreign bodies are removed with foreign body forceps depending upon the nature of the foreign body and progress was recorded.

Results: Most of the patients in the study group were of 0 to 3 years of age, most common type of foreign body are chicken bone, mutton bone and coins.

Conclusion: Carelessness in the preparation of food and feeding the children, hasty drinking and eating up the drinks and foods are most common etiological factors. The prognosis of foreign bodies after removal is good and none of the cases suffered from any complications in the immediate and late post-operative period.

Keywords: Foreign Bodies, Radiology, Chicken bones, Coins, aerodigestive tract.