Flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in the management of tracheobronchial foreign bodies in children: the value of a combined approach with open tube bronchoscopy.

Fifty-two pediatric patients suspected of having a pulmonary foreign body but in whom there was insufficient evidence to warrant open tube bronchoscopy. In 19% of these patients, foreign bodies were found. Twenty-six percent of patients who had previously had foreign bodies removed and who subsequently underwent flexible bronchoscopy for a variety of indications were found to have residual foreign bodies. Clinically unsuspected foreign bodies were found in 1% of 1,054 additional patients who had flexible bronchoscopy for other reasons. The diagnostic use of the pediatric flexible bronchoscope is a safe, definitive, and cost-effective method for the identification of patients with pulmonary foreign bodies when other techniques yield equivocal or negative results. Patients known to have a foreign body should undergo open tube bronchoscopy for foreign body removal.