Ear,nose and throat foreign bodies: An analysis of 150 cases

Aim: to analyze different types of foreign bodies,its presentation and insertion in ear,nose and throat. method: this hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in the department of ent,head & neck surgery,mardan medical complex,from september 2012 to august 2013. data was collected using predesigned proforma while taking history and clinical examination and also interviewing the caregiver of the paediatric patients,which included age,gender,address,level of education,site of lodgment,type and durationof fb. the data collected from 150 patients were entered and analyzed by using spss version 16.0. results: one hundred and fifty cases of foreign bodies in ent were included in the study. the mean age of the study subjects was 15.13±10.17 years,with minimum age of one and half year and maximum of 56 years. majority of patients were children of age group of 0-10 years (26.66%). males were predominant (61.33%). majority of patients,as well as caregivers of children were either illiterate or with literacy up to primary level. foreign body of the ear was the commonest finding with 88 cases (58.66%) followed by nose 47 cases (31.33%). most of foreign bodies were non-living 128 (85.33%) while living insects were seen in 22 cases (14.66%). about 99 patients (66%) came within one day of lodgement. conclusion: foreign bodies are common in ear,nose and aero-digestive tracts of children of younger age. males were the common affectees and low level of literacy of parents or guardians was common observation in this study. earlier the treatment of fb lesser will be the complication.