2021 Volume 72 Issue 1 Pages 1-9
We examined 1714 patients who visited our hospital with chief complaint of a foreign body in the pharyngo-laryngeal and esophageal regions between April 2011 and March 2019. Foreign bodies were identified in 1040 patients(60.1%).The most common foreign body identified was a fish bone, and the most common site where foreign bodies were identified was the palatine tonsil. There was a significant association between subjective symptoms of odynophagia/pharyngalgia and the presence of a foreign body. The concordance between subjective symptoms in the right or left and the sites where foreign bodies were identified was greater than 90%.Of the subjective symptoms in the vertical dimension, 91.4% were in the palatine tonsil when the subjective symptoms were in the oral cavity. Complications were found in 4.6% of the patients. We assessed the factors that affected complications by multivariate analysis using logistic regression analysis. Age, injury period, the type of foreign body(denture),and the site of foreign body identification (esophagus)were the affecting factors in all cases where foreign bodies could be identified. Meanwhile, age, injury period, and the site of foreign body identification(esophagus)were the affecting factors when the foreign bodies were limited to fish bones. Confirming subjective symptoms may shorten the time to identify and remove foreign bodies as well as reduce the chances of overlooking them when diagnosing a foreign body in the pharyngo-laryngeal and esophageal regions, suggesting the importance of information obtained during medical consultation.
