Tracheal foreign body misdiagnosed as acute bronchial asthma in a toddler child

Abstract

Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is one of the common causes of significant morbidity and mortality in a toddler child. Airway foreign bodies might be presented as a spectrum, ranging from the acute onset of choking, cyanosis, and respiratory distress to delayed onset of mild respiratory distress, wheezing, persistent cough, and fever. Here, we report a case of peanut aspiration in a toddler child, who was initially being treated as acute bronchial asthma, and the diagnosis was subsequently confirmed on computed tomography (CT) chest as a case of tracheal FBA. A foreign body was successfully retrieved by rigid bronchoscopy under general anesthesia and was a peanut by morphology. The possibility of FBA should be considered in any toddler child, who presents for the first time with acute bronchial asthma-like symptoms; wheezing, coughing, or respiratory distress. In a resource-limited setting, low-dose CT chest can be an early noninvasive diagnostic tool to detect all airway foreign bodies.