Management of whistle as a foreign body trachebronchial tree

ABSTRACT

To assess the management of whistle as a foreign body tracheobronchial tree and to know the measures for its avoidance. This is a descriptive study carried out prospectively at the department of ENT, Head and Neck Surgery PGMI, LRH Peshawar for a period of three years. Those patients having any other foreign body except metallic whistle in tracheobronchial tree were excluded from the study. In all patients the foreign bodies were removed using Karl Storz bronchoscope. This study included two hundred and twenty cases, mostly the young adults belonging to average socio-economic class. Out of 220 cases 150 [68.18%], were male with the mean age of 6 years and 70 [31.8%] were female with the mean age of 5 years. Male to female ration was 2.1 Eldest patient was of 15 years with whistle in trachea and the youngest was of three years. Maximum number of cases i.e 169 [76.8%] had foreign body in right main bronchus followed by trachea in 27 [12.2%] left main bronchus in 15 [6.8%] glottis in 7 [3.1%] and supra glottis 2 [0.9%]. The whistle were taken out successfully using different sizes of rigid bronchoscopes. None of the patients had any postoperative complications. It is concluded that mostly foreign bodies lodge in right main bronchus. Awareness of hazards of inhaled foreign body may reduce the incidence