Bronchoscopy for airway foreign bodies: consideration based on an extraordinarily large one.

An extraordinarily large foreign body was lodged in the trachea of a 14-year-old boy. It was a rectangular piece of lead measuring 35 x 12 x 5 mm and was removed by a lower rigid bronchoscope introduced through a tracheostoma. Based on experiences of this and 6 other cases of tracheobronchial foreign body treated by this method, we discuss what approach should be used to extract tracheobronchial foreign bodies. We believe that lower bronchoscopy is still useful in removing foreign bodies very large or located in the peripheral bronchus, although it is used much less often today than before.