Unusual Foreign Body Aspiration in Infants Below 6 months of Age

Foreign body aspiration is one of the leading causes of accidental death in children. In older infants, tendency to explore their environment by putting objects in mouth leads to aspiration, but in younger infants below 6 months of age, as they are non ambulatory, it is the elder sibling who puts the foreign body into younger child’s mouth. Diagnosis is often difficult because of no definite history in most cases. The purpose of this study is to diagnose and manage airway foreign bodies in younger infants with unusual presentation and no definite history. All patients referred to our Otorhinolaryngology Department with respiratory symptoms unresponsive to medical treatment and no definite history of foreign body aspiration were prospectively evaluated using virtual bronchoscopy. All patients underwent rigid bronchoscopy and foreign body removal with use of a maneuver in some cases.