Introduction and objective:

In low-income countries, the situation of foreign bodies is relatively poorly studied. Although the literature is relatively scarce, published studies show that they represent an increasingly important public health problem.

Material and methods:

A retrospective study was conducted that used the collection and analysis of data available in the operating room books diagnosed as tracheobronchial consecutively for a period of 26 years (1983-2009) in Maputo Central Hospital (Mozambique).

Results:

118 patients were studied. Of these, 21 were in the trachea (17.80%) and 97 in the bronchi (82.20%). Most patients observed were men (59.30%). The average age of the patients in this study was 4.39 years (mode 2, median 2.50; standard deviation 6.004, the range was 2 months to 45 years). There were more cases in 2-year-old children (19.5%). The seeds were the most frequent (31.40%), followed by plastic (26.30%) and metal (22%). There were 5 cases of complications.

Conclusions:

Although this study provides evidence that can be considered important from the point of view of public health, it should be considered that it is a hospital study with its own limitations. However, this study presents a unique compilation of cases of patients with foreign bodies in the airway that covers a relatively long period, which is an important source of information on the subject.

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