Prevalency of foreign body aspiration in children under 10 year's olds in Gorgan, North of Iran (2016-17)

Foreign body aspiration is the cause of death in 7% of children under two year’s olds. Children’ molars teeth do not erupt and under devedoled ability to swallow food and generally likely to be distracted, playing or ambulatory while eating. This study was performed to determine the frequency of foreign body aspiration in children under ten years old in north of Iran.

This descriptive study was done on 50 children (21 boys, 29 girls) less than ten years old with the final detection of foreign body aspiration hospitalized in Taleghani hospital in Gorgan, north of Iran during 2016-17. Demographic characteristics, results of physical examination, radiography and bronchoscopy recorded in the file and the radiology report was collected by a pulmonologist and radiologist.

The common age of foreign body aspiration was between 1-3 years (58%) followed by over 3 years (24%) and under 1 years old (18%). Symptoms of patients with foreign body aspiration were including cough (64%), rhonchi (52%), respiratory distress (32%), wheezing (32%), choking (30%). Common physical examination findings were wheezing (40%), unilateral pulmonary sound (34%), stridor (20%), and rhonchi (6%). The most common findings in Chest X-Rays were unilateral air trapping (48%) in right lung, left mediastan shift (30%), right lung atelectasia (20%), pneumonia (16%). Just in one case (2%) was found the body of radio opac in right lung and in 32% of cases, the graghs were normal. In 70% of patients less 24 hours, in 26% between 1-15 Dayes and in 4% of cases more than 15 Dayes were taken to medical centers. The most common foreign body was nuts (32%) followed by plastic objects (26%), aspiration by sunflower seeds (14%) and beens (10%) and other foreign objects (18%).

The most common clinical signs of foreign body aspiration were cough, wheezing and right lung pneumonia.