A prospective study on foreign bodies in the oropharyngeal/ nasopharyngeal pathways done in the ENT department of a tertiary care private medical college hospital in the year 2022

To do a prospective study on foreign bodies(FB) in the oropharyngeal (OP) / nasopharyngeal (NP) pathways done in the ENT department of a tertiary care private medical college hospital in the year 2022.To analyse, categorize, correlate the demographic data of patients presenting with FB in OP/ NP pathways with the nature of FB, clinical features, method of removal, duration of hospital stay in the ENT department of a tertiary care private medical college hospital in the year 2022.Study method: Prospective studyStudy centre: Saveetha Medical College, ThandalamStudy population: patients with nasopharyngeal foreign body attending the ENT departmentStudy duration: 8 months from January to August 2022Sample size: 50 1. Age more than 6 months 2. Both male and female subjects 3. Patients presenting to ENT department with oropharyngeal/nasopharyngeal foreign body. 1. Age less than 6 months 2. Patients presenting to ENT department with diagnosis other than FB in the OP/NP pathways.OP/NP FB has been seen frequently in the males than females. Most of them were single in number in the OP pathway. Highest number of patients are seen in the 30-39yrs age group of LIG, MIG coming from urban and sub-urban population in our study when compared to other studies which showed highest frequency in children. Fishbone was the frequently encountered FB. Almost all of them are acute cases presenting within 24 to 48hrs. With regards to symptoms, all of them except the persons with NP FB presented with dysphagia. In children upto 4yrs the symptoms were incessant cry, refusal to feed and excess salivation were seen. All OP FB were treated with either IDL or DL scopy. All NP FB treated with FOB. Anaesthesia was either local or short GA depending on the merits of each case. The duration of hospital stay was mostly 24 to 48hrs, except 3 cases who were geriatric people with co-morbidities. In our study Foreign bodies in the OP pathway were common in the adult male population in the middle age unlike children in other studies. Fish and chicken bones were common and in the low and middle income group coming from urban and sub-urban locality. Further studies are needed with larger sample size and longer duration to generalize the results to wider population.