ABSTRACT
An updated approach in the management of 50 patients with foreign body inhalation is presented. Certain risk factors that lead to complications and mortality due to endoscopic extraction of foreign bodies and thus determine prognosis were identified. Remedial measures to reduce morbidity and mortality due to bronchoscopic removal of foreign bodies are suggested. Fifty patients of suspected foreign body inhalation presented to a Unit of the Department of ENT, Head and Neck Surgery of Government Medical College associated SMHS Hospital Srinagar, Kashmir from March 2007 to June 2017. Of these, 49 patients were subjected to rigid tube bronchoscopy for removal of the aspirated foreign bodies and one coughed out the foreign body spontaneously during admission for bronchoscopy. History of foreign body inhalation was positive in 90% of patients and remaining was mostly referred from Paediatric Units with un-resolving collapse-consolidation of the lung. Whereas plain radiography of the chest and the soft tissues of neck were the primary imaging modality used in this study to detect the inhaled foreign bodies or their effects there are reports of virtual bronchoscopy being done with a multidetector computed tomography scanner in 3D image generation from axial cuts of the internal walls of the tracheobronchial tree in the management of patients suspected with foreign body aspiration. Bronchoscopy is a difficult and potentially hazardous procedure in the infant and young child. Telescopes and telescopic forceps were used during bronchoscopy to facilitate extraction of a foreign body inhaled. The type of a foreign body, site of its enlodgement and the complications encountered during its extraction were noted. During bronchoscopy the patients were connected to an ECG monitor and a pulse oximeter. 80% of the patients with foreign body inhalation were children in the age group of 0 - 5 years. There was a definite history of choking over the foreign body in 88% of the patients leading to acute respiratory distress in 46%. Cough alone or along with other symptoms occurred in most of the patients (96%). Persistent fever with respiratory symptoms unresponsive to treatment occurred in 38% of the patients with or without a positive history of foreign body inhalation. Right main bronchus was the commonest site of enlodgement of foreign body. In the present study, bean and peanut were the commonest types of foreign bodies inhaled (34%). Radiological findings in these patients include atelectasis with or without pneumonitis in 46.65% of the patients, normal chest/soft tissues of the neck in 24.45%, obstructive emphysema on the affected side in 24.45%, foreign body seen in the respiratory tract in 8.90% and bronchopneumonia in 2.22%. Complications associated with the endoscopic extraction of foreign bodies and the risk factors that lead to complications and mortality in patients with aspirated foreign bodies were identified in this study and the measures to reduce these complications and mortality rate to very low levels were suggested. Transient hypoxia, hypoxic bradycardia, transient cardiac arrest, bronchial perforation and death, laryngospasm, bronchospasm, subglottic oedema, reflex bradycardia and pneumothorax were among the few complications which occurred with the rigid endoscopic extraction of foreign bodies in the present study. Among the risk factors associated with the complications were prolonged bronchoscopy, semi-blind procedure, a vegetable foreign body, improper size and positioning of a bronchoscope and some other important factors which are detailed in the text of this paper to follow. Remedial measures on the basis of complications and the risk factors are suggested so as to decrease the morbidity and mortality due to endoscopic extraction of foreign bodies inhaled into the tracheobronchial tree.