Tracheobronchial Foreign Bodies in Children: 67-year experience at ENT Clinic Tuzla

To evaluate clinical characteristics and outcomes of urgent bronchoscopies due to foreign body aspiration (FBA), we analyzed cases from January 1954 to December 2021. The study included children up to 14 years of age who underwent emergency bronchoscopy on suspicion of a foreign body in the lower respiratory tract. Each patient was assessed for age, sex, nature and location of the foreign body, bronchoscopy findings, complications, and airway involvement. A total of 889 children underwent urgent bronchoscopy over 67 years. Most cases (66.7%) occurred within the first three years of life, and 10.6% involved children under one year of age. Recently, a marked decrease in positive findings in infants has been observed. Boys represented 62.5% of cases. Organic foreign bodies, predominantly pumpkin seeds, were most common. The right bronchus was the predominant location (51%). In the most recent period, multiple-location foreign bodies became more frequent. Both the annual number of bronchoscopies and the proportion of positive findings have declined. During the COVID-19 pandemic, suspicion of FBA and the number of bronchoscopies significantly decreased.