ABSTRACT

  Background and Aim : Foreign bodies in the upper aero digestive tract are considered an important cause of mortality and morbidity in the early years of life. In spite of the improvements in the management of the foreign body aspiration, according to the National Health Association of the U.S.A, 1.2 deaths occur from ingestion of foreign body annually in every 100000 people.

  Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive study and comprised 104 cases who had under-gone bronchoscopy under general anesthesia. The data analyzed by means of SPSS software. The required data such as age, sex and type of aspirated material were collected.

  Results: 62.5% of the patients were male and 37.5% female, with the age range of 9 months to 15 years old. 78.8% of the patients were children under 5 years of age. Sun flower seed was the most common substance aspirated (20.2% of the cases) and grains lay in the second place (19.2% of the patients). The most common complication of aspiration was pneumonia which occurred in 39.4% of the patients.

  Conclusion: Aspiration is most prevalent in children under 5 years of age and may lead to high mortality and morbidity rates. Therefore education of the households, preparation of facilities required for removing foreign bodies and training of hospital staff are necessary.

  Key words: Aspiration, foreign body, Bronchoscopy�