A Brief Analysis of Fifty Foreign Bodies in the Larynx, Trachea and Bronchi

¹ The Department of Broncho-Esophagology, Ste-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Canada.

On the whole we noticed that the symptoms and physical signs produced by foreign bodies could simulate those of bronchopulmonary diseases such as bronchial asthma, bronchopneumonia, tumors, infectious bronchitis and even tuberculosis.

It is thus most important that a complete study be made in every case in which the diagnosis of the bronchopulmonary disease has not been firmly established or confirmed. By a complete study we mean a complete past family and personal history, a careful physical examination, radiological studies, laboratory analyses and bronchoscopic exploration, followed if necessary, by complementary bronchographic studies.

Bronchoscopy, that is the bronchoscopic operation, is the only one that permits the removal of the cause of the obstruction, that is, the foreign body; or that provides the means of enlarging the lumen of a bronchus obstructed by a swollen mucosa, false membranes, debris, shreds of tissue or viscid secretions. It is in this way that the formerly appalling mortality in this type of illness has been reduced to the respectable figure of 2 per cent; 2 to 4 per cent only of foreign bodies in the bronchi are expelled by coughing; about 99 per cent can be removed by peroral bronchoscopy with a resultant complete recovery in 98 per cent of cases even if the prolonged sojourn of the foreign body has brought about extensive pathological changes.

In conclusion, we wish to point out that foreign bodies cause many deaths by asphyxia before the victim can get to a physician.