Children would taste anything: foreign body ingestion – a multidisciplinary perspective and clinical practice algorithm

Abstract

Foreign body ingestion is a frequent issue among the pediatric population, children under 4 years old being at high risk. The authors reviewed the literature considering the importance of a quick diagnosis and prompt distinction between various types of foreign bodies, thus resulting in the best therapeutic approach. The most common foreign bodies ingested are cited to be coins, button batteries, magnets and food bits. As for therapeutic approaches, references don’t place upper endoscopy as key curative method, in some cases outpatient follow-up is a better choice. Foreign body ingestion complications are usually rare, but sometimes life threatening (coins generate aorto-esophageal fistulas, fish bones cause intestinal perforation, magnets lead to intestinal obstructions and erosions). After carefully consulting the latest guidelines regarding management of foreign body ingestion, we put together an instructive diagram outlining curative procedures in these cases. This review summarizes diagnostic and therapeutic methods for the most common swallowed objects and provides a brief, concise, easy to use clinical practice algorithm, thus giving clinicians an excellent tool to manage these cases.