Bronchial foreign body vs asthma.

Between January 1983 and June 1988, 30 unsuspected foreign bodies were extracted from the respiratory tracts of children. Twelve of them showed no roentgenologic findings and their histories revealed repeated hospitalization due to reactive airways disease (RAD) or croup syndrome. As a test-therapy, theophylline, corticosteroids and epinephrine were administered simultaneously to these patients in appropriate doses. No response was obtained in two patients with subglottic foreign bodies (SFB). In seven of the ten patients with bronchial foreign bodies (BFB), wheezing was either decreased or disappeared in the uninvolved lung, but no change was observed in the lung with a foreign body in its main bronchus.