Proposal of a Risk Scoring System to Assist in Preoperative Radiographic Decision-Making for Gastroscopic Foreign Body Extraction

Background and Aims: Esophageal foreign body (FB) impaction demands timely gastroscopic extraction, yet the need for preoperative radiographic imaging (PORI) varies by patient. To date, no validated risk-stratification tools exist to guide clinicians in determining the necessity of PORI before gastroscopic FB extraction. This study aims to fill this gap by developing a novel esophageal FB symptom score (EFBSS) to stratify patients at risk of severe complications, thereby providing a personalized approach to PORI decision-making. Methods: Patients with suspected FBs were retrospectively categorized into PORI or non-PORI groups. Gastroscopic success rate, complications, and survival prognosis were compared and analyzed between the 2 groups. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for FB-related perforation or surgical complications. A risk stratification system (low-risk: 0 to 3; moderate-risk: 4 to 6; high-risk: 7 to 9 points) was then built based on the likelihood of such complications to guide PORI decision-making. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the PORI group (n=749) and the non-PORI group (n=1751) in the main outcome indicators, such as disease characteristics, FB types, incidence of complications, gastroscopic success rate, and survival prognosis ( P >0.05). However, the PORI group had a longer duration of FB impaction and higher outpatient costs than the non-PORI group ( P <0.05). The EFBSS includes swallowing FBs with pain, intentional ingestion of FBs, and cervical/chest/abdominal pain, with good discriminative power. The total score had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.822 (95% CI: 0.736-0.908), while the AUCs for the 3 components were 0.716, 0.699, and 0.894, respectively. The EFBSS system stratified the risk of FB-related perforation or surgical complications into 3 tiers: low (0.41%), moderate (2.95%), and high (39.29%). A significantly increasing risk trend was observed across tiers ( P <0.001). Conclusions: We developed a risk scoring system incorporating swallowing FBs with pain, intentional ingestion of FBs, and cervical/chest/abdominal pain. This system preoperatively stratifies patients by the risk of FB-related perforation or surgical complications to facilitate PORI decision-making and maximize benefits.