抄録
During the period between 1971 and 1980, the postmortem examinations of 14 infants and young children, ranged from 9 months to 4 years of ages, averaged 1-year-7 month old, who died of foreign bodies in the airway were performed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Examiners Office. The clinical progress of these children was reviewed, and summarized as follows.
1. The foreign bodies in these cases were several kinds of foods such as beans in 5 cases, orange or its skin in 2, other foods in 3 and a candy in one case.
2. Among these, two chidren were eating foods while they were playing or running around, and 3children aspirated foreign bodies into the airway accidentally during vomiting or unknown cause and while changing their dipers.
3. These accidents have tought us that it is very important to feed or give foods to children while they are quiet.
4. Ten children have died at the day of accident, and 3 children have been transferred from clinic to clinic and died in several days after the accident. Every phisician who happens to see children presenting with wheezing or respiratory distress should be aware of foreign body in the airway.
5. In 13 cases, foreign bodies were found in the trachea. The case of foreign body in the trachea usually shows a normal chest X-ray and this makes the precise diagnosis much more difficult than cases with a foreign body in the bronchus. The fiberscopic or bronchoscopic examinations are mandatory for making the exact diagnosis.
