evaluation of the incidence and complications of foreign body ingestion in the patients referred to shiraz khalili hospital

introduction & objective: foreign body ingestion is a common and important condition that can be life threatening if not diagnosed and treated properly. diagnosis is especially difficult in patients with unusual symptoms. this study was performed to determine the incidence and complications of foreign body ingestion in the patients referred to shiraz khalili hospital. materials & methods: in this cross-sectional study,153 patients with foreign body ingestion who underwent esophagoscopy during 18 months period in khalili hospital were evaluated according to: age,sex, the time from ingestion of the foreign body till referral to the hospital,type and site of foreign bodies and complications. the relationship between these factors and complications was analyzed using spss software and x² test. results: male/female ratio was 1.4 to 39.9% of the patients were less than 15 years old and 60.1% were more than 15 years old. 52.9% of the patients were referred to the hospital in period of less than 1 day,42.5% in 1-7 days and 4.6% in more than 7 days from foreign body ingestion . the most common symptom was dysphagia and the most common sign was pooling of the saliva. foreign body was found in 56.4% of the patients with normal physical examination and the most common site of foreing bodies was upper 3rd of the esophagus.the most common foreign body was bone and coin and foreign body was found in 72.7% of patients normal radiography. conclusion: some patients had complications like retropharyngeal abscess,ulceration (due to foreign body or iatrogenic). there was a meaningfull relation between complications and age(>15 years) sharp foreign bodies and referring to the hospital in more than 1day after foreign body ingestion. site of the foreign bodies and sex of the patients had no significant relation with occurrence of complications. careful history taking and complete physical physical examination is important in patients suspected to have foreign body ingestion and a negative radiography does not rule out the presence of foreign bodies.