Foreign bodies of the larynx and lower airways in children

Abstract

Foreign bodies of the larynx and the lower airways constitute a significant medical problem in children. Most common among children aged 1–3, it occurs less often in new-born and school children. The larynx, trachea and bronchi of a new-born baby and an infant show numerous differences in comparison with the anatomical structure of the same organs of an older child or an adult. The course of disease caused by the aspiration of a foreign body into the airways can be divided into four stages: acute obturation period, oligo-symptomatic period, period of acute inflammatory complications of the bronchi and lungs, and period of persistent bronchopulmonary damage. The pictorial diagnostics constitutes an indispensable or in the majority of cases the ultimate step taken in order to diagnose a foreign body in the airways. The suspicion of "acute aspiration" of a foreign body into the airways is always followed by directoscopy and bronchoscopy examinations.