Cases of laryngeal foreign bodies are rarely encountered in clinical practice, and the appropriate management strategy needs to be carefully considered in each case. We encountered a pediatric patient with a laryngeal foreign body and report this case herein, together with a review of the relevant literature. The patient was a 10-month-old boy. His family noticed an abnormal breathing sound and visited a nearby doctor. As a preliminary examination revealed a foreign body under the glottis, the infant was transferred to the emergency room of our hospital. At arrival at our hospital, he was fully consious, and had no hoarseness or cough. Fiberoptic laryngoscopic examination confirmed the presence of the foreign body under the glottis, therefore, we carried out urgent surgery for removal of the foreign body on the same day, under general anesthesia and oxygen supplementation via a face mask. A Jackson’s direct laryngoscope, and a foreign body forceps for a bronchoscope made by STORZ were used for the foreign body removal. The foreign body was a star-shaped plastic toy, about 1 cm in diameter. Edema of the subglottis was expected, therefore, endotracheal intubation was performed after the foreign body removal. Extubation could be performed on day 5 after the surgery. Based on the management strategy adopted for our case and previous reports, we examined the type of anesthesia, method of extraction and need for tracheotomy in patients with a laryngeal foreign body, and we summarize the management of cases of laryngeal foreign body.
