Urgent bronchoscopy for foreign body aspiration: 48 children among 1096 patients

Abstract

Objective: Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a potentially life-threatening emergency in children. Urgent rigid bronchoscopy (URB) should be performed when presentation includes severe respiratory failure with suspicion for FBA. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates URB in English literature.

Methods: Forty-eight patients who underwent URB were included in this study. From the medical records, the patients’ demographic characters, endotracheal intubation status, peripheral oxygen saturation, bronchoscopy results, type and location of foreign body (FB), intra- and postoperative complications and mortality, X-ray, length of hospital stay were evaluated.

Results: Twenty-four of the 48 patients were non-intubated. Peripheral oxygen saturation values were 60 ± 14.40 in the preoperative period. No statistical differences were found between intubated and non-intubated patients in terms of intra- and postoperative complications. There were no statistical differences between patients with negative and positive results for bronchoscopy in terms of intra- and postoperative complications.

Conclusions: Bronchoscopy is not without risk; however, it is a life-saving procedure. Despite negative FB results, urgent bronchoscopy should be performed in suspicious cases.