Abstract
Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a common problem necessitating prompt recognition and early treatment to minimize the potentially severe and sometimes fatal consequences. We presented a 24-year-old girl who was admitted for chronic cough and recurrent pneumonia associated with constitutional symptoms. She was feverish with a temperature of 39°C and had tachycardia and tachypnoea with an oxygen saturation of 98%. Investigations revealed leukocytosis. CXR showed right lower lobe consolidation, and CT thorax demonstrated collapse consolidation of the right middle and lower lobe, along with associated dilated segmental bronchioles and diffuse patch ground-glass opacity in both lung fields. Bronchoscopy revealed a pen cap at the entrance of the right lower lobe. Patient symptoms improved after removal of the foreign body. In patients with recurrent chest infection, the physician should check for the possibility of FBA and prompt for a referral to a tertiary center for further evaluation.
Highlights
Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a common medical problem
They are prone to inhale materials such as nuts, seeds, beads, coins, pins, small parts of varying toys, or school equipment such as a pen cap. e study by Adjesto et al involving 33 children in Northern Ghana showed the commonest FBA in children was groundnuts (39.4%), and the remaining was metallic objects (21.1%). e bronchoscopic finding noted foreign bodies (FBs) mostly localized to the right (24.2%) and left (24.2%) main bronchi, respectively [4]. ere was a large study population conducted by Ciftci et al in 2003 involving 663 children who suspected FBA, and 75% of them ingested organic materials such as sunflower seeds (27%), roasted chick-peas (15%), hazelnut (12%), and peanut (4%)
We found pen caps which are usually found in children and toddlers. is is what happens when someone had a habit of biting the pen caps while writing and incidentally swallowing the cap, which subsequently dislodged to the respiratory system instead of the alimentary system
Summary
Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a common medical problem. In the US, FBA leads to 7% of accidental death among children age less than four-year-old and 75 to 85% of accidental death in children under the age of 15 years [1]. FBA in adults mostly is seen in the sixth or seventh decade of life [2]. FBA can be further classified into organic and inorganic materials. Most organic materials causing FBA among children are nuts and seeds while among adults are food and bones. E most common types of inorganic FBA in children are beads, coins, pins, small parts of toys, or school pieces of equipment, i.e., pen caps. Pills, and tops from beverage cans are the commonest FBA materials found among adult populations [1,2,3]
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