BONES AS OVERLOOKED FOREIGN BODIES IN THE LUNG

Abstract

Bones are a fairly common kind of foreign body, but they usually lodge in the food passages. In 2,461 cases of foreign body, bones were found in about 15 per cent, but in over 90 per cent of these the bones were in the food passages (table 1). Another statistical point is that bones occurring as foreign bodies in the lung are more often "over looked" than other foreign bodies. Of the bones removed from the bronchi in the Chevalier Jackson Clinics, about 40 per cent had been "overlooked," as compared with only about 10 per cent of the total number of foreign bodies. By "overlooked," I mean allowed to remain in the patient's anatomy without a definite diagnosis for periods varying from six weeks to ten years. I have tried to show in tabular form the salient features of ten typical cases of overlooked bone in the lung (table