Bronchoscopy—A Challenging Frontier: A Retrospective Study of Foreign Body Bronchus

Objective:The study was undertaken to give importance to proper history taking, various problems associated with diagnosis, management, and definite criteria to suspect a foreign body and to whom bronchoscopy should be submitted. Materials and methods:This study consists of 511 patients of which 337 were male and 174 were females.These patients were all positive cases of foreign body bronchus who underwent bronchoscopy during the period from January 1991 to January 2015 in the age-group ranging from 0 to 12 years.Bronchoscopy was done using Storz rigid bronchoscopy.Results: About 511 cases of foreign body bronchus were selected out of which the majority were male (66%) in the age-group of 1-3 years (60%).About 39% of patients had a definite history of foreign body, i.e., episode of choking 35% had doubtful/retrospective history, whereas 27% had a negative history.The usual time of presentation was in a period from 1 day to 1 week.No serious complications or mortality were reported.Conclusion: A rigid bronchoscope is a safe and reliable method for the diagnosis and treatment of foreign bodies.A high index of suspicion is necessary otherwise parent's syndrome of a forgotten foreign body will be continued by a physician.Importance should be given to parental guidance by doctors and media about feeding the child with peanuts and other foodstuff in children of age-group less than 3 years where there is a high chance of aspiration as observed in our study and in the literature.