Surgical Outcome of Treatment of Tracheobronchial Foreign Bodies in Children: A Retrospective Analysis.

Background: Foreign body aspiration is an important cause of morbidity and potential mortality in children. The diagnosis of foreign body aspiration may be difficult in children as they are unable to give a history and the condition mimics a host of other childhood illnesses. In this study, we present our experience with foreign body aspiration in children.

Objectives: To study the presentation of children with airway foreign bodies in our environment and discuss the outcomes of management.

Methods: This is a single centre retrospective study of all children who were confirmed to have tracheobronchial foreign body aspiration from January 2015 to December 2019. Biodata, clinical features, radiological features and outcome of management are presented in the article. Statistical analysis used: Measures of central tendency, dispersion and other relevant statistical analysis done with IBM SPSS® version 22.

Results: Twenty-one records were complete and analysed. The mean age was 5.95years with a M: F ratio of about 3:1. About 70% of the children presented more than 24 hours after the incident and the vast majority of aspirated objects were inorganic. About half of the children had received a prior wrong diagnosis. Majority of the foreign bodies were left sided (47.6%). Twenty of the 21 foreign bodies were successfully extracted. There were two mortalities recorded in this study.

Conclusion: Foreign body aspiration is a life threatening condition. Physicians ought to consider this diagnosis in children presenting with unexplained acute respiratory symptoms.