A study of foreign bodies in upper aerodigestive tract

Foreign bodies in the aerodigestive tract are common.Their effects may varies from minimal disturbance of function to severemorbidity or even sudden death. They enter the aerodigestive tract because ofhaste during eating, alcoholic intoxication, ill-fitting dentures, mentallychallenged persons and children, Plummer Vinson syndrome, oesophagealstrictures and carcinoma, contamination of food with foreign bodies. Foreignbodies are common in young children because of their inborn tendency to putthings in natural orifices. Common symptoms are pain, fever, hoarseness,dysphagia, odynophagia, intractable cough, choking (cafe coronary), difficultyin breathing, haemoptysis and hematemesis. Signs include point tenderness,palpatory thud, audible slap, stridor, respiratory distress, pneumothorax andsurgical emphysema.