Abstract
A 2-year-old boy was admitted to the Jikei University Hospital with productive cough and fever. Chest X-ray studies (atelectasis of the rightupper lobe) and physical findings suggested a foreign body in the right bronchus. Under the diagnosis of bronchial foreign body, flexible bronchoscopy was performed under general anesthesia, and the “foreign body” was extracted successfully. Unexpectedly, it was not a “e xogeneous” foreign body but a “endogeneous” mucoid plug.
This case is so-called “Mucoid Impaction of the Bronchi”, and in infants the differential diagnosis between this disease and “exogeneousbronchial foreign body” is very difficult without bronchoscopy. We suggested that, in case of infants, the flexible bronchoscopy is the first choice to diagnose and treat a foreign body.
