ECH Chung, TYW Hon, KP Leung, FL Lau

Abstract

A prospective 4-month survey was conducted at our hospital to look into paediatric patients presenting with suspected lodgement of swallowed foreign bodies. Eighty-eight consecutive cases were collected and 93% of accidents were meal-related with fish bone representing the single most common variety of foreign bodies swallowed. Presentation was uniformly early and the foreign body confirmation rate was 54.5%. The clinical picture generally paralleled that seen in local adults but differed markedly from paediatric series reported elsewhere. Prevention here should emphasize more on educating parents! guardians in food preparation than on play supervision. Discharge against medical advice rate was found to be high (18%) and it should be cut down. The means of achieving this were briefly discussed.