Foreign body injuries in the upper-aero-digestive tract in children: the Susy Safe project results

• Published in: Injury prevention 2010-09, Vol.16 (Suppl 1), p.A216-A216
• Main Authors: Gregori, D, Foltran, F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Consumer protection; Injuries
• ISSN: 1353-8047; 1475-5785
• DOI: 10.1136/ip.2010.029215.771

Background Foreign body injuries in the upper-aero-digestive tract are a common and serious problem among children which is still poorly understood since the difficulty to collect information with a deep level of detail and a wide geographical coverage needed for active surveillance purposes. Methods A total of FB 7296 injuries in paediatric patients were gathered by the Susy Safe, EU funded, Web-Registry. The registry involves more than 60 institutions from 24 countries. Results About 62% (4047) of children was older than 3 years and the 54% (3700) were males. About 52% of the FBs were inorganics. Among them pearl, ball and marble (14%), toy (5%), coin (4%) were the most recurrent objects. Among organics, fish bones and bones accounted for 21% of cases and nuts for 13%. The shape of the objects was spherical in the 32% of the cases. The volume was estimated and the median value was 37.7 mm3 (IR 16.76, 96.74). Complications arose in the 10% of the cases, and hospitalisation was required in the 34% of the injuries with a median length of stay of 1 day. Injuries took place in the absence of adult supervision in the 51% of cases. The 52% of injuries occurred while children were playing and 41% while they were eating. Conclusion The Susy Safe Web-Registry is serving as a basis for a knowledge-based consumer protection activity. It distinguishes from other registries for its wide size and by a deep characterisation of objects which caused the injuries.