MediAI

  How AP and lateral radiographs distinguish airway from esophageal foreign bodies—and why a clinically stable child may still require urgent bronchoscopy. Executive Clinical Summary A coin is usually considered a swallowed foreign body. But the clinical problem changes completely when the object is actually in the airway. A previously healthy boy in his early teens presented after swallowing a coin and continued to experience hoarseness and dysphagia for six hours . His breathing was initially stable, with no stridor or drooling. Chest and neck radiographs, however, demonstrated a round radiopaque foreign body at the level of the subglottic airway . The decisive issue was therefore not simply identifying a metallic object. It was determining where the object was located . In this case, the combination of clinical symptoms and radiographic localization supported the diagnosis of airway foreign body aspiration . The subglottic 25-cent coin was subsequently removed under gene...