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Course: Airway Complications Resulting From Pediatric Esophageal Button Battery Impaction: A Systematic Review

CME Credits: 1.00

Released: 2022-05-26

Key Points

Question What airway injuries occur after children ingest button batteries?
Findings In this systematic review of 195 children who ingested a button battery, airway injuries were a severe and not infrequent consequence, occurring more often in younger children. Tracheoesophageal fistulae and vocal cord paralyses were the 2 most common airway injuries.
Meaning Continued efforts should be directed toward prevention strategies; a high index of suspicion after button battery ingestion is required to avoid the devastating sequelae of airway injury.

Abstract

Importance Button batteries (BBs) are commonly found in many household items and present a risk of severe injury to children if ingested. The direct apposition of the trachea and recurrent laryngeal nerves with the esophagus puts children at risk of airway injury secondary to the liquefactive necrotic effects of BB impactions.
Objective To review airway injuries, including long-term sequelae, after BB ingestion in children.
Evidence Review For this systematic review, a comprehensive strategy was designed to search MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Web of Science, and CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature) from inception to July 31, 2021, in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses () reporting guideline. Additional cases were identified from the National Capital Poison Center BB registry. Individual authors were contacted for additional information. Studies with pediatric patients (<18 years) who developed airway injuries after BB ingestion were included. A total of 195 patients were included in the analysis; 95 were male. The mean (SD) age at BB ingestion was 17.8 (10.2) months. The mean (SD) time from BB ingestion to removal was 5.8 (9.0) days. The 2 most common airway sequelae observed in our series were 155 tracheoesophageal fistulae and 16 unilateral vocal cord paralyses. Twenty-three children had bilateral vocal cord paralysis. The mean (SD) duration of ingestion leading to vocal cord paralysis was shorter than that of the general cohort (17.8 [22.5] hours vs 138.7 [216.7] hours, respectively). Children presenting with airway symptoms were likely to have a subsequent tracheoesophageal fistula or vocal cord paralysis.
Conclusions and Relevance Airway injuries are a severe consequence of BB ingestion, occurring more often in younger children. This systematic review found that tracheoesophageal fistulae and vocal cord paralyses were the 2 most common airway injuries, often requiring tracheostomy. Vocal cord injury occurred after a shorter BB exposure time than other airway injuries. Continued efforts should be directed toward prevention strategies to avoid the devastating sequelae of BB-associated airway injury.


Educational Objective
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article


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