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Proper use of diagnostic techniques provides a high degree of success, and the treatment modality to be used depending on the type of the foreign body is mostly satisfactory.

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Video-assisted thoracoscopic evacuation and chest tube insertion in situ is a new therapeutic approach for pleural empyema that shortens hospital stay and reduces the necessity of open decortication.

Turban pin aspiration is common in Islamic populations and treatment usually requires bronchoscopic procedures. In order to minimize turban pin aspiration frequency, we recommend that turbans should be secured by traditional fastening methods or with an apparatus which cannot be aspirated.

BACKGROUNDTracheobronchial foreign body aspirations, which threaten lives in childhood, also carry potential risks during and after bronchoscopy. The aim of this study is to review complications and precautions that need to be taken against possible risks.METHODSFrom 1987 to 2005, bronchoscopy was done in 1035 children in our department on suspicion of foreign body aspiration. The average age of these patients, mostly male (55%), was 4.1 years. Medical history, physical examination, radiological methods and bronchoscopy were used in the diagnosis. Bronchoscopy was applied under general anaesthesia, and the respiratory and cardiac systems were closely observed for 4 hours after the process.RESULTSNine hundred eleven of 1035 patients (88%) had a foreign body in the tracheobronchial system. In 42 of the patients, infection required aggressive medication; in 30, hypoxia and bradycardia occurred as a result of obstruction during bronchoscopy; in 37, laryngeal edema, laryngeal spasm and/or bronchospasm required ventilation support; in 6 patients, tracheobronchial system bleeding occurred; in 2 patients pneumothorax occurred, in 1 patient pneumomediastinum was observed and 6 patients needed thoracotomies because of foreign body aspiration. In this series there were 8 deaths.CONCLUSIONBronchoscopy, performed for tracheobronchial foreign body aspiration, carries a potential life-threatening risk during and after the process. The clinician needs to be aware of these risks, take proper precautions, and perform bronchoscopy by taking the medical condition of the patient and characteristics of the inspired foreign body into consideration.

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Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) assesses the random motion of the water protons. The technique is more frequently used in body imaging, and recent investigations showed its use in pancreatic imaging. Diffusion-weighted imaging can be helpful as a complementary imaging method in the differentiation between mass-forming focal pancreatitis and pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values derived from DWI can distinguish between simple pancreatic cyst, inflammatory cysts, and cystic neoplasms of the pancreas. Presence of parenchymal fibrosis in chronic pancreatitis causes diffusion restriction and results in lower ADC values on baseline DWI. The ADC values reveal either delayed peak after secretin stimulation or lower peak values in patients with early chronic pancreatitis, which may be helpful to depict chronic pancreatitis in its earliest stage. In this paper, we reviewed the technical aspects of DWI and its use in pancreatic imaging.