Evaluation of the Accuracy of CT scan with the COVID-19 Protocol in Detecting the Location of Foreign Body Aspiration

Ingestion of foreign body by children is one of the common problems that society and medical staff are always struggling with. Due to the fact that children put any nearby objects in their mouths during the phase of knowing the world around them, they are prone to swallowing a foreign object and getting it choked. It also happens during eating. The best method to diagnose and manage a foreign body aspiration is bronchoscopy, but this procedure has its own problems, such as the need for anesthesia.

Inthis study, we decided to investigate the accuracy of CT scanwith the COVID-19 protocol in detecting the location of foreign body aspiration.

In this diagnostic study, all children with foreign body aspiration referred to Mofid Children Hospital from March 2018 to September 2021 were evaluated. Patients' information, including age, sex, locations of foreign body, radiographic report, bronchoscopy report, and CT scanreport were checked and recorded. The diagnostic values of CT scanwere comparedwith the diagnostic values of bronchoscopy results as a standard method.

193 children were evaluated. The mean age was 26.01 ± 21.83 months and 65.3% were boys. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of this method were 95.52%, 97.96%, 98.46%, 94.12%, and 96.55%, respectively.

CT-scan with the COVID-19 protocol is a good method to localize the location of the foreign body.