the efficacy of rigid bronchoscopy for foreign body aspiration

the aim of the current study was to determine the pattern, presentation and management of foreign body aspiration in our  population.  this prospective study comprised 55 patients with foreign body aspiration admitted to our department from january 2009 to december 2011. all patients underwent rigid bronchoscopy under local or general anesthesia. the patients’ demographic information along with clinical characteristics and their outcome were recorded and reported. the mean age of the children was 13.3±3.6 years. there were 32 (58.2%) females and 23 (41.8%) males. the frequent symptom was an attack of chocking followed by cough. the predominant sign was wheezing. rigid bronchoscopy was successful in removing foreign body from 52(94.5%) patients. three (5.5%) patients who had undergone thoracotomy with bronchotomy needed exploration, after failure of bronchoscopy to remove the foreign body. there was no mortality in our series. average hospital stay was 12 hours. it could be concluded that rigid bronchoscopy is modality of choice in management of foreign body aspiration especially in pediatric population.