[Foreign body ingestion in children: 105 case reports].

The ingestion of a foreign body (FB) is one of the most frequent childhood accidents requiring urgent care depending on the type and localization. Coins are the most frequent, and disk battery ingestion can lead to a significant risk of complications. FB stagnation in the esophagus entails a major risk of perforation. This article reports a retrospective study of 105 cases of foreign body ingestion admitted to the pediatric gastroenterology unit between November 2002 and June 2010. The average age of these patients was 4 years with a 1.5 sex ratio. Ten patients were followed for esophagus stenosis; the others had no considerable pathological histories. The fibroscopy performed on 104 patients allowed us to visualize the foreign body in 96 cases (91.4%). In the 8 remaining cases, the FB was not found (it had already migrated in the digestive tract). Coins were the most frequent (64.7%). Endoscopic extraction removed 83 FBs (86.4%). In 11 cases, it was pushed towards the stomach, split up in 1 case, and surgery was necessary in only 1 case. The progress of child digestive fibroscopy has decreased both the morbidity related to the ingestion of foreign bodies and the use of surgery. Prevention should be based on educating the parents by informing them about the risk of this kind of accident.