Symptoms Of Tracheal And Bronchial Foreign Body
Categories:
FOREIGN BODIES IN THE AIR AND FOOD PASSAGES
Sources:
A Manual Of Peroral Endoscopy And Laryngeal Surgery
1. Tracheal foreign bodies are usually movable and their movements
can usually be felt by the patient.
2. Cough is usually present at once, may disappear for a time and
recur, or may be continuous, and may be so violent as to induce
vomiting. In recent cases fixed foreign bodies cause little cough;
shifting foreign bodies cause violent coughing.
3. Sudden shutting off of the expiratory blast and the phonation
during paroxysmal cough is almost pathognomonic of a movable tracheal
foreign body.
4. Dyspnea is usually present in tracheal foreign bodies, and is due
to the bulk of the foreign body plus the subglottic swelling caused by
the traumatism of the shiftings of the intruder.
5. Dyspnea is usually absent in bronchial foreign bodies.
6. The respiratory rate is increased only if a considerable portion
of lung is out of function, by the obstruction of a main bronchus, or
if inflammatory sequelae are extensive.
7. The asthmatoid wheeze is usually present in tracheal foreign
bodies, and is often louder and of lower pitch than the asthmatoid
wheeze of bronchial foreign bodies. It is heard at the open mouth, not
at the chest wall; and prolonged expiration as though to rid the lungs
of all residual air, may be necessary to elicit it.
8. Pain is not a common symptom, but may occur and be accurately
localized by the patient, in case of either tracheal or bronchial
foreign body.