Dr. Atish Haldar
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Foreign bodies in the aerodigestive tract are a common emergency faced by every ENT surgeon in day to day practice. The aim of the study is to observe the changing trend in the nature of distribution of different foreign bodies impacted in the aerodigestive tract of subjects attending the ENT department of a tertiary care centre over the last two decades. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective study. The study group consisted of 173 subjects over the period Jan 2015 to Dec 2016, and 140 subjects over the period Jan 1997 to Dec 1998 attending a tertiary care centre with history of foreign body ingestion or inhalation. The foreign bodies were removed after thorough history taking and necessary investigations. The nature of different foreign bodies in 2015-16 was compared with that of 1997-1998. RESULTS The study showed a higher percentage of inorganic foreign bodies and artificial dentures in 2015-16 than the year 1997-1998. The published literature about different types of foreign bodies in aerodigestive tract has been reviewed. CONCLUSION Inorganic foreign bodies and artificial dentures are more common foreign bodies in the aerodigestive tract in recent times, i.e. 2015-16 than 1997-1998, mostly due to increasing socioeconomic status.
