What are the symptoms of foreign body ingestion?
Typical clinical presentation of foreign body ingestion
- Adults trace the onset of symptoms to the ingestion of a specific meal or foreign body.
- Most commonly, acute dysphagia, odynophagia, and chest pain reflect underlying esophageal obstruction.
- Respiratory distress, stridor, and inability to handle oral secretions suggest the need for urgent intervention.
- Persons with developmental disabilities, psychiatric patients, or children may remain asymptomatic for months after ingestion, or they may not volunteer the history.
- Patients with impacted anorectal foreign bodies may relate a wide variety of medical histories to account for their predicament, ranging from accidents or assault to medical remedies.
