Foreign Body Ingestion Presentations in Children

Aim: Foreign body ingestion is one of the most common reasons for admission to pediatric emergency departments. It is one of the important admission complaints that should be questioned in the history and kept in mind regarding the need for urgent intervention in pediatric emergency service admissions and, in some cases, the difficulties in diagnosis. We wanted to examine the presentation patterns and complications of our patients who presented with foreign body ingestion, to examine an issue that is important for the emergency services, and to emphasize the necessity of questioning foreign body ingestion if the cause of the complaint cannot be found in some disease groups.

Material and Method: Our study was carried out by retrospective examination of the files of the patients evaluated in a Pediatric Gastroenterology and Pediatric Surgery Outpatient Clinic, and recording the complaints, presence of complications, foreign body localization and what the removed bodies were.

Results: Twenty-five patients with suspected foreign body ingestion and detected foreign body were included in the study. 40% of the patients were girls, 60% were boys, and the mean age was 4.5 years. The most common presentation was 44% asymptomatic. At the time of admission, 16% of the patients were complicated by perforation. Foreign bodies were removed endoscopically in 44% and surgically in 20%. The most extracted object was coin (20%). The most common location was the gastric antrum in 52%.

Conclusion: Foreign bodies requiring intervention are most frequently removed endoscopically, and the rate of patients requiring surgical intervention is low. It should not be forgotten that a significant part of the patients are asymptomatic, and in some patient groups, especially in patients with autism and in very young age groups, foreign body ingestion should be asked, even if there are no symptoms.