Caracterización de los pacientes pediátricos con ingestión de cuerpo extraño que ingresaron al servicio de urgencias de una institución de cuarto nivel

Abstract

BackgroundForeign body ingestion is a common problem in the paediatric population. Children put foreign bodies into their mouths and swallow some of them, often without causing any harm in the gastrointestinal tract. However, in some cases they may cause serious complications. ObjectiveThe purpose of the study was to describe the cases of paediatric foreign body ingestion. MethodsDescriptive study of patients between 0 and 16 years of age who consulted to the emergency room with foreign body ingestion between July, 2011, and December, 2012. ResultsA total of 136 cases of foreign body ingestion were admitted. The main symptoms were drooling (25%), nausea/emesis (22.8%), dysphagia (16.1%), cough/dyspnoea (9.5%), and odynophagia (8%). The mean time interval between the event and the evaluation in the emergency department was 10hours. Diagnosis was made using X-rays (78%), upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (42%), and computed tomography (3%). The most common foreign bodies were coins (27.9%), blunt objects (24.3%), sharp-pointed objects (17.6%), and fish bones (11.7%). Most of the patients were discharged with no intervention or were managed expectantly, with therapeutic endoscopy performed in only 12.5% of cases. The foreign body was removed in 36.7% of cases, most of them by endoscopy. ConclusionThis study is a contribution to the local epidemiology on sociodemographic characteristics of paediatric patients with foreign body ingestion. Studies with larger population samples for determining the most frequent complications are required.