Abstract

To explore the causes of missed diagnosis of foreign-body aspiration and summarize the experiences on the diagnostic and therapeutic use of flexible bronchoscopy (FB) in these patients. Twelve cases of foreign-body aspiration misdiagnosed as other respiratory diseases, confirmed by FB examination were analyzed. All of these patients had no histories of foreign-body aspiration, and no foreign-body shadows were found on their chest films. But there were atelectasis, hilar enlargement and obstructive pneumonia found on the films. Among the patients in this group, 7 cases were misdiagnosed as lung cancer, 2 cases of pneumonia and asthma each, and 1 case as tuberculosis. The diagnoses of all the 12 cases were confirmed by FB examinations. The foreign-bodies of the 11 cases were successfully grasped and taken out through the FB. This suggests that FB should be of great diagnostic and therapeutic value in patients with foreign-body aspiration misdiagnosed as other respiratory diseases.