Abstract：Objective Try to find the appropriate way to managing gastrointestinal foreign bodies in children. Methods Following-up was performed in admitted patients with ingested FB in our hospital. The patients with nonopaque FB or FB located on esophagus were excluded the study. Results From Jan. 2010 to Dec. 2011, total 523 patients were enrolled into the study. The mean age was (3.03?2.07)years with a M/F ratio of 332/191. There were 355(67.9%)cases on admission with the stomach FB, and 168(32.1%)cases with the intestinal FB. Gastric FB proceeded uneventfully in 351 patients or was extracted by flexible endoscope in 4 patients. All except one intestinal FB was passed spontaneously down through the alimentary tract. The most common foreign bodies ingested are coins (328,62.7%). All of them were eliminated through normal bowel movement within 4 weeks. For large FB (longer than 2.5cm), natural elimination occurred in 29 cases and three cases were extracted by flexible endoscope. These 3 cases of FB were longer than 5cm. All sharp FBs (n=28) in our study passed out uneventful. Sixteen patients were found with battery ingestion, among them 12 were button batteries and 4 were cylindrical batteries. One cylindrical battery was removed by endoscope; the others passed through the gastrointestinal tract without complications. The outcome of all patients was uneventful. Conclusions The majority of ingested foreign bodies are able to be defecated spontaneously through the bowel movement; conservative treatment should be considered in priority for ingested FB in children.
2013, Vol. 24 
