Is a fish bone at a parallel angle in the throat more likely to fall out automatically？

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the factors influencing the spontaneous expulsion of fish bone foreign bodies in the throat of children.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted between January 2018 and December 2021 of children hospitalized with fishbone foreign bodies in the throat, and subsequent electronic rhinolaryngoscopy to analyze the factors influencing the spontaneous expulsion of these foreign bodies.

Results: The effect of foreign body angle on the rate of dislodgement was found to be statistically significant. Parallel angle was more likely to dislodge relative to vertical (RR = 2.495, 95% CI 1.515-4.109, P = 0.000); inclined angle was more likely to dislodge relative to vertical (RR = 2.121, 95% CI 1.284-3.505, P = 0.003). For the three fish bone foreign body angles (vertical, inclined, and parallel), the percentage of dislodgement showed a linear trend (0.278, 0.600, and 0.723), indicating that the percentage of dislodgement appeared to increase with the increase of fish bone foreign body inclination angle (P_trend = 0.000).

Conclusion: There is a high rate of natural expulsion of fish bone foreign body from children's throat, and the rate of expulsion increases with the increase of the foreign body inclination angle.

Keywords: Children; Fish bone foreign body; Inclination; Natural dislodgement; Throat.