Abstract
Authors report 60 cases of foreign bodies of the respiratory tract which were seen during 1932-1958 period at the Dept. of Otolaryngology of Kanazawa University School of Medicine.
1) Endonasal foreign bodies consisted of paper objects, nuts, and beans occurring mainly in children between ages 3 and 4 years. Those in which the diagnosis was delayed from 4 to 16 months snowed foul nasal discharges.
2) Symptoms of laryngeal foreign bodies resembled those of laryngeal diphtheria. For this reason two out of four cases were misdiagnosed.
3) 70% of foreign bodies of the tracheobronchial tree were seen in males. They were found in trachea 6 times, in the right bronchus 14 times, in the left bronchus 3 times and location unknown 1. All 3 cases of foreign bodies in the left bronchus were treated for pulmonary tuberculosis or pneumonia for varying period of 3 to 12 months.
4) Foreignbodies in the tracheobronchial tree were 5 beans, 4 seeds 3 pins, 2 each of nails and pencil caps.
5) There was one death in this series.
