Foreign Body Aspiration in Children Clinical, Radiological, and Bronchoscopic Findings

Background: Inhalation of foreign bodies (FBs) is a frequent and adverse condition in the pediatric population. Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a serious health problem that is sometimes fatal. According to the 2019 data of the National Safety Council (NSC), deaths associated with FBA are the fourth most common preventable accident between the ages of 0–4 years. Aim: The study aimed to retrospectively inspect foreign body aspiration (FBA) among children by focusing on symptoms, physical and radiological examination and complications. Method: This was a retrospective study (case series) conducted at Benghazi Children‘s Hospital in a period from1st. October 2020 to1st. October 2022 that included all children under 15 years old who underwent rigid bronchoscopy for suspected foreign body aspiration. Results: A total of 131 patients who underwent bronchoscopy were included in this study. The mean age of the studied group was (3.5±3.4 years) ranged from 2 months to 15 years. The FBA was most common (50, 38.17%) in the age group (1-3 years), followed by children aged 10 years (8, 6.11%). The FBA was slightly higher in females (73, 55.73 %) than males (58, 44.27%). The history of FBA and the presence of FB in bronchoscopy were witnessed in the majority of cases: (108, 82.44%) and (117, 89.31%) respectively. The majority of removed FB were organic in nature (83, 70.94 %) with the predominance of peanuts (33, 39.76%), and seeds (21, 25.30%). Most of FB is located in the right main bronchus (46, 51.69%) followed by the left main bronchus (16, 17). A large number of cases (83, 72.82%) took more than two days (48 hours) between aspiration and the removal of a foreign body. Cough was the most common symptom (100, 77.5%), followed by chocking (88, 68.2%), then breathlessness (61, 47.3%), and the other cases presented the following symptoms in decreasing order: wheezing, cyanosis, fever, grunting, seizure, dysphagia, ........