The majority of patients admitted to the emergency room after putting a toy in their nose were children between the ages of 2 and 5. Fish bones were the most common types of foreign objects coming out of children’s ears, throats, and noses, and toys were found the second most.
Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital, Professor Seok-Min Hong’s team announced on the 15th that they confirmed this fact in a study on ‘Analysis of foreign substances in the ear, nose, and throat in children’. The results of this study were published in the January issue of ‘CHIDREN’, a SCIE-level international academic journal.
The research team analyzed 1,285 pediatric patients under the age of 12 who were treated with foreign substances in the ear, nose, and throat at Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital from October 2012 to September 2020. Pediatric patients were classified into infancy (under 2 years old), early childhood (2-5 years old), and late childhood (6 years old or older). Foreign bodies were removed using suction or instruments, and if it was difficult to remove the foreign body or there were concerns about complications, it was removed by esophageal gastroscopy or surgically under general anesthesia.
As a result of the analysis, the most common pediatric patients by age were 52.2% in early childhood, 40% in late childhood, and 7.8% in infancy. Among the ears, nose, and throat, the neck was the most common with 59.2%, but in the early childhood years, the nose was 48.4%, more than the neck 46.8%.
As for the type of foreign substances, bones such as fish bones and crustaceans accounted for the most at 47.4%, followed by toys (24.8%) and food (14.4%). Bone was in the early childhood (38.1%) and late childhood (64.2%), and as the age of the child increased, the types of food consumed varied and increased. In the early childhood period, the rate of putting toys in was relatively high at 31.1%. In the neck, bones were found in the absolute majority at 79.9%, but toys were found in the nose and ears at 55.7% and 56.8%, respectively.
Foreign bodies were removed by the otolaryngologist in the emergency room in 95.1% of the majority of patients. In 0.6% of cases where foreign bodies were not found or failed to be removed, they were referred to a physician and performed esophageal gastroscopy. In 4.3% of children who were uncooperative and at risk of complications, they were removed by surgery after general anesthesia. In particular, if there was a foreign body in the ear, 15.8% of the cases were surgically removed. On the other hand, foreign substances in the nose and throat were relatively easy to remove and there were many cases where they were removed spontaneously.
Since it is difficult to accurately express uncomfortable symptoms in children, the researchers advised that rapid detection and removal is necessary to minimize complications such as aspiration pneumonia, pharyngeal abscess, tympanic membrane perforation, and nosebleeds caused by foreign substances.
Professor Hong Seok-min said, “In the case of a child, if a foreign body enters the ear, the ear canal is narrower than that of an adult, and there is a lot of earwax. There is also a high risk of damage to the middle eardrum,” he explained.