As there are now no longer a paediatric clinical team at HRI, the paediatric surgical pathway is up-dating, this is the current provisional pathway, to ensure care falls inline with GIRFT report.
The ingestion of a foreign body or multiple foreign bodies (FB) is a common presenting complaint in paediatric surgery, with a peak incidence from 12-24 months however, can occur at any age. Ingested foreign bodies rarely cause problems; almost 80% of patients pass the foreign body without intervention – in seven days2 (only 1% require surgical removal). However, occasionally foreign bodies can cause significant morbidity (for example, oesophageal rupture) and 1% require surgical removal.
The presenting symptoms and outcomes of an ingested foreign body is highly dependent on the swallowed object, and for this reason, the guidance for hazardous and non-hazardous foreign body ingestion has been divided accordingly.
