Protocol of care for foreign-body ingestion in children: a qualitative study

Abstract

Foreign-body ingestion is a common complaint in children's emergency medical services. It usually has an accidental etiology; however, it can be intentional and deliberate. The first description of accidental foreign-body ingestion occurred in 1692, when the 4-year-old Crown Prince of Brandenburg, Frederick the Great, swallowed a shoe buckle. The types of foreign bodies are very varied. In the United States, coins are the most accidentally ingested objects, while in China and other Eastern countries, fish bones and bones of animals served as food are the most common foreign bodies in emergencies 1 .Although foreign-body ingestion is common in emergency medical services, there are no care protocols for this clinical scenario. This study aimed to suggest a care protocol for foreign-body ingestion, address the clinical aspects, and identify the ingested object, severity, and professional conduct. METHODSThis is a qualitative study performed in accordance with the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). We searched in books and scientific articles that analyzed foreign-body ingestion in pediatrics. As inclusion criteria, full original articles were used, published in the period from 2000 to 2019 (Portuguese, Spanish, and English). As exclusion criteria, incomplete articles were considered, which did not cover the specific theme and were duplicated in the databases.We retrieved the articles through the following databases: BIREME, SCIELO, LILACS, and MEDLINE/PubMed. We used the descriptors: "corpos estranhos," "acidentes domésticos," "pediatria" (in Portuguese); "cuerpo extraño," "acidentes domésticos," "pediatria" (in Spanish); and "foreign bodies," "Accidents, Home," "pediatrics" (in English).