Abstract
Foreign body aspiration commonly occurs, especially among children younger than 3 years of age. Most endobronchial foreign bodies may be easily removed by bronchoscopy and have a good prognosis. Despite advances in bronchoscopic procedures, difficulties in management of and complications from foreign body aspiration are still noted. We present a foreign body aspiration case with acute respiratory distress syndrome caused aspiration pneumonia, which was successfully treated by bronchoscopy under extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). ECMO can be an effective and potentially life-saving method in complicated foreign body aspiration with uncompensated respiratory failure.
Figures and Tables
![]() | Fig. 1(A) The initial chest radiograph showing patchy consolidation in both upper lobes. (B) The initial high resolution computed tomography revealing foreign body in right main bronchus (black arrow) with extensive consolidation in both lung fields and small amount of pneumomediastinum. (C) Chest radiograph after 4 hours from initial following chest radiograph showed bilateral opacification of lungs, compatible with acute respiratory distress syndrome. |
![]() | Fig. 2Chest radiograph. (A) Immediately following extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) cannulation for foreign body aspiration, showing near complete opacification of both lungs indicative of acute respiratory distress syndrome. An ECMO cannula is seen entering at the right internal jugular vein. (B) Following after change veno-venous ECMO to veno-arterial ECMO, showing complete white-out of both lung fields, consistent with acute respiratory distress syndrome. (C) Following after extubation at the 10th hospital day |
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