Mothers must be alert to foreign bodies in the trachea

       A foreign body in the trachea can be a lingering haze for ENT physicians. Tracheal foreign bodies are arguably the most dangerous of all ENT diseases and have the highest mortality rate. Everyone knows that life is a breath of air, and children with tracheal foreign bodies are at risk for life-threatening diseases because their trachea is blocked by foreign bodies and cannot be effectively ventilated.  This disease has the following characteristics: 1. The incidence is not high.  2. The age of onset is small, mostly children under 3 years old.  3. The history of the disease is hidden, often caused by children crying while eating granular food, sometimes not easily detected.  4.The development of the disease can be fast or slow. If it is a small metallic foreign body, it may even be carried for life, and if it develops quickly, it can cause death by asphyxiation within a few minutes or even minutes without warning. Diagnosis is difficult. CT and other equipment are often needed to confirm the diagnosis.  5. Single and high-risk treatment. Transbronchoscopy or fiberoptic bronchoscopy to remove foreign bodies is the most common and effective method. However, because the bronchoscope and the surgical instruments themselves operate in the trachea, it can also affect the ventilation of the already hyperventilated child, so there is often a rapid decrease in blood oxygen and even respiratory and cardiac arrest during the operation. Moreover, due to the difficulty of pediatric anesthesia, the technical requirements for anesthesia are also very high. In addition, postoperative cardiopulmonary function monitoring and rescue also have an important role. Due to the above characteristics, how to successfully save children with tracheal foreign bodies and thus reduce the mortality rate has become the goal of ENT surgeons’ efforts for many years.  In view of the above characteristics of tracheal foreign bodies, I would like to offer a few hopes that can provide ideas for the solution of such diseases.  First of all, the science and education efforts, ENT doctors and all related departments can promote the concept of prevention of airway foreign bodies to the largest extent. So that our young parents can reduce the chances of letting their young children inhale foreign bodies by mistake and consider visiting the hospital if they notice a cough after eating.  Next is the hospital aspect. Primary hospitals should establish sound referral facilities and systems, strengthen training in awareness of tracheal foreign bodies, and have a specialist doctor and nurse to accompany children with tracheal foreign bodies to see them for referral.  Once again, in large hospitals, given the low morbidity and high surgical mortality, it is not a bad idea to establish one or more skilled teams to deal with tracheal foreign bodies. It is recommended that regions with more than one million people establish a tracheal foreign body surgery team in children’s hospitals, including radiology, anesthesiology, ENT and intensive care unit medical and nursing teams, so that children with tracheal foreign bodies who can be referred to all hospitals in the region will try to be referred to This is to reduce the mortality rate of surgery.