title: Flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in the management of tracheobronchial foreign bodies in children: the value of a combined approach with open tube bronchoscopy.
abstract: 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.
mesh_terms: D001980:Bronchi; D020680:Bronchoscopes; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D014132:Trachea