Once again, a multidisciplinary team from the Octavio de la Concepción de la Pedraja pediatric hospital in Holguin, headed by specialists from the ENT service and anesthesiologists, once again saves the life of a small child, by extracting a foreign body ingested at home.
On this occasion it was a 17-month-old patient, who on Monday arrived at the Emergency Department of the children’s institution with symptoms of respiratory distress, about which the mother alleged that the baby had swallowed a clothesline spring.
Dr. Antonia María Salermo Reyes, head of the Provincial Otorhinolaryngology Group (ORL), reported that after performing an X-ray on the patient, the specialist on duty verified the foreign body at the esophagus level, but due to the anatomical and neighboring relationships with the airway, that is, with the trachea, caused significant respiratory distress.
Given this situation, it was decided to take him to the salon to extract the wire, but due to the great edema of the esophagus, the intervention could not be performed, for which it was necessary to keep him on steroids and antibiotics, to explore him again at a second time, according to the specialist of Second Degree in ENT.
This Tuesday, after evaluating the child’s situation, a team made up of otolaryngologists, anesthesiologists, intensivists and surgeons from the Holguin pediatric hospital took him back to the room, where they finally performed an exploratory esophagoscopy, with a 22-cm rigid esophagoscope. “We observed significant edema of the esophageal mucosa and the foreign body that we extracted, without the child presenting intraoperative complications.”
The specialist noted that the most feared inconvenience in these cases, due to the nature of the foreign body, is esophageal perforation, since it is a wire with two points attached to the esophageal mucosa, but the risky procedure was carried out with all the expertise that characterizes to these professionals from the Holguin Pediatric Hospital.
At this time, the 17-month-old boy is in the Intensive Care Unit of the institution, for his follow-up and according to the doctor, it is expected that there will be no difficulties.
This case is the fifth patient with bronchial and several esophageal foreign bodies treated urgently by the ENT Service and other specialists at the center, which indicates the need to increase vigilance over children, to whom nothing dangerous should be left. at your reach. They are unpredictable, therefore, the elderly cannot be trusted.
By Lourdes Pichs Rodríguez /ahora.cu/en
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