Foreign Body Aspiration in Adult: Analysis of 28 Cases

Objective: The aim of our study is to discuss our experience with foreign body aspirations in our Interventional Pulmonology Unit.
Methods: Patients who were referred to our Interventional Pulmonology Unit between January 2008 to November 2014 for foreign body aspiration and whom foreign body was sentential by intervention were included. Data were used from a retrospective analysis.
Results: From the 28 patients, 64.3% of them were women and mean age of the patients were 43.5±21.54 years. Most common presenting symptom was cough (96.3%). Half of the patients were presented in 24 hours after the procedure. From the 5 patients that have undergone diagnostic broncoscopy by fiberoptic bronchoscope, foreign body was removed in 3 of them. Rigid bronchoscopy was done in 25 (89.3%) of the patients. In 3 of the patients foreign body cannot be detected by bronchoscopy and removed by surgery. 67.9% of the foreign bodies that were removed were inorganic in nature.
Conclusion: Bronchoscopic approaches are effective to decrease mortality and morbidity for the diagnosis and treatment of foreign body aspirations in adults. Rigid bronchoscopic approach should be the first choice in foreign body aspirations but fiberoptic bronchoscopy can also be used in selective cases by experienced physicians.