Guidelines
Guideline for the management of ingested foreign bodies

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Abstract

This is one of a series of statements discussing the utilization of gastrointestinal endoscopy in common clinical situations. The Standards of Practice Committee of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy prepared this text. In preparing this guideline, a MEDLINE literature search was performed, and additional references were obtained from the bibliographies of the identified articles and from recommendations of expert consultants. When little or no data exist from well-designed prospective trials, emphasis is given to results from large series and reports from recognized experts.

Guidelines for appropriate utilization of endoscopy are based on a critical review of the available data and expert consensus. Further controlled clinical studies are needed to clarify aspects of this statement, and revision may be necessary as new data appear. Clinical consideration may justify a course of action at variance to these recommendations.

Section snippets

Diagnosis

Older children and fully conscious, communicative adults may be able to identify the material swallowed and point to the location of discomfort. Localization of the level of impaction, however, is often not reliable.26 In many instances the ingestion goes unrecognized or unreported until the onset of symptoms, which may be remote from the time of ingestion.27, 28, 29, 30 Young children, the mentally impaired, or the psychiatrically deranged may present with choking, refusal to eat, vomiting,

General

Once foreign body ingestion is diagnosed, the physician must decide whether or not intervention is necessary, what degree of urgency is called for, and by what means. Management is influenced by the patient's age and clinical condition; the size, shape, and classification of the ingested material; the anatomic location in which the object is lodged; and the technical abilities of the endoscopist.19, 38

The timing of endoscopic intervention in foreign body ingestion is dictated by the perceived

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