A light bulb moment: an unusual cause of foreign body aspiration in children

Abstract

A 15-month-old girl developed persistent cough with no associated history of foreign body aspiration. Chest X-ray showed a U-shaped radiopaque foreign body, which was initially thought to be a hairpin, in the right main bronchus. Rigid bronchoscopy was performed and the foreign body turned out to be a light-emitting diode (LED) bulb. In this article, we report our experience of LED bulb aspiration in children, with the view to raise the awareness of clinicians about this potentially life-threatening emergency.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) Bulb Aspiration in Northern Ghana: A Case Report and Literature Review

“…There have been numerous reports of foreign body aspiration in literature, including one of our previous study revealing groundnuts to be the most commonly aspirated material and children younger than 3 years are most vulnerable in more than 70% of cases [2,8].…”

“…This is our first case of LED bulb aspiration into the right main bronchus which we successfully retrieved by rigid bronchoscopy using advanced bronchoscope and imaging systems. LED bulb is a rare cause for tracheobronchial aspiration and only six cases have been reported in the literature so far with a total of 8 cases [5][6][7][8][9][10]. We reviewed the six published literature reports.…”

“…Globally only six cases of LED bulb aspiration have been reported [5][6][7][8][9][10]. The gold standard for treatment of foreign body aspiration is rigid bronchoscopy.…”

Light-Emitting Diode Bulbs in Paediatric Airway- A Case Series

“…On extensive internet search of published English literature, we found only 3 cases of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) bulb in airway. 1,2,3 We present 2 cases of LED bulb aspiration presenting to us in the last 6 months.…”

When Christmas decoration goes hand in hand with bronchial aspiration …

“…The occurrence of new technologies for Christmas decorations, such as LED bulbs, with an aerodynamic design facilitating the bronchial penetration despite its size, lead to new respiratory foreign bodies for whom extraction is not always easy. To our knowledge, only another Chinese case report [3] of a 15-month-old girl with a LED bulb in the right main bronchus has been reported, but monitoring such cases may be of interest to possibly reconsider the shape of some LED bulbs.…”