Foreign bodies in the tracheobronchial tree: management and complications.

Accidental inhalation of a foreign body into the air passages is not an uncommon occurrence in any age group, but it is more frequent in the younger age group. Thirty-seven of the 47 patients (78.7 percent) in the present study were under 16 years of age. Most of the foreign bodies were found in the right bronchus. In this series, 73.9 percent of the interbronchial foreign bodies were recovered by bronchoscopy, while 6.5 and 19.6 percent were recovered during emergency tracheotomy and bronchotomy, respectively. The mortality in this series was 6.4 percent.