ABSTRACT

Purpose:

Foreign body aspiration is usually seen in childhood but can occur at any age. Complete or partial obstruction of the main bronchial system causes different findings and death can result if emergency treatment is not given. We analysed the patients treated for foreign body aspiration in our clinic.

Materials and methods:

Twenty-five patients in whom foreign body was suspected were evaluated retrospectively between January 2003 and December 2007. All of the patients were examined in terms of age, sex, initial presenting complaint, other complaints, arrival time, social-economic levels, physical examination and radiolo-gic findings, and localisation and nature of the foreign body.

Results:

Of the patients 16 were male and 9 were female. The range of age was 6 months to 66 years, and mean age was 18. The most common complaint was unex-pected coughing in symptomatic patients. Other frequent symptoms were respiratory distress and wheezing. A small amount of the patients came from rural areas and were of low social-economic status. A large number of the patients presented in the first 24 h. Half of the patients had positive physical examination findings. Eight patients had positive posteroanterior chest roentgenograms although they did not have any physical examination findings. Of the foreign bodies 15 were organic and 9 were inorganic.

Conclusion:

This study reports that foreign body aspiration is important in adults as well as in children, and radiologic findings with physical examination are of great importance in the evaluation of these patients.