Oxford Radiographic Chart of Foreign Bodies

ENT surgeons frequently treat adults and children with impacted upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) foreign bodies. Typically, assessment is based on a focused history and examination including flexible nasal endoscopy. Frequently, a lateral soft tissue radiograph is performed when the foreign body is not immediately recognised, this is used to locate the foreign body and detect soft tissue signs associated with foreign body impaction or complication. Not all foreign bodies are radio-opaque, and historical studies have looked at the relative radio-opacity of frequently ingested fish bones and metallic foreign bodies.1-3 To our knowledge however, there is no comprehensive tool available for the identification of most radio-opaque foreign bodies encountered in clinical practice. A tool of this kind would be valuable to emergency medicine clinicians, radiologists and ENT clinicians assessing radiographs performed for these patients. This study aimed to identify the relative radio-opacity of commonly encountered foreign bodies in the UADT to aid clinicians in the interpretation of lateral soft tissue radiographs performed for suspected foreign body impaction.