Airway Obstruction by Foods in Adults

Ito Hiroyuki

doi:10.2468/jbes.56.1

Two cases of upper airway obstruction by food were reported with the statistics of 11 subjects of upper airway obstruction by food for 22 years in our hospital.<br>The first subject was 53 year-old woman with bilateral putaminal bleeding. She suffocated during indirect laryngoscopy. The Heimlich maneuver was impossible to perform. It was because we could not make her get out the wheel chair immediately. A piece of pear was dislodged by fingers. The second subject was 49 year-old woman suffering from progressive neurological with mental retardation, of which diagnosis was unknown. She choked with a piece of pork, of which were dislodged by use of an aspirator. We have had 11 subjects with upper airway obstruction by food, 10 of them were upper airway obstruction. The subjects (9 men and 2 women) aged 44 to 68. All of them had physical and/or mental disorders. The causes were cerebral vascular, multiple atrophy, Wernicke-Korsakov syndrome, head injury and unknown neurological diseases. The upper airway foreign bodies were dislodged by forceps or finger sweep in 8 subjects. The patient with a lower airway foreign body was intubated to dislodge the foreign body by suction under intubation. The Heimlich maneuver was not performed in any cases.<br>Before dislodging the foreign body, we should diagnose the lesion of the occlusion by fingers. The operator insult the second and the third finger by the mouth into the hypopharynx, pressing the lateral wall of the pharynx laterally. When the operator touches the foreign body, he or she turns the finger toward the laryngeal surface of the foreign body and move it to the other side to keep airway. After keeping airway, he or she hangs out without picking it up. If he or she tries to pick it up, the airway will be occluded more completely. We can diagnose the airway obstruction and dislodge it simultaneously by this method, so called finger sweep or finger probe. In case of lower air way foreign body, keeping the air way is the first choice for example tracheostomy and puncture cricothyroido membrane by the use of large needles. Our data and domestic literal investigations showed that the Heimlich maneuver was scarcely performed at hospitals in Japan. It was not so effective as expected. When Heimlich maneuver and/or cardiopulmonary resuscitation is performed, examinations for their adverse effects on abdominal organs are recommended.

Airway Obstruction by Foods in Adults

Bibliographic Information

Search this article

Description

Journal

References(114)*help

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Export

Report a problem