Review Article
A 5-year review of aural foreign body removal in a Major Victorian Hospital
Abstract
This review is to describe the epidemiology and complications associated with aural foreign bodies (FBs). This is a retrospective review of patients with aural FBs who presented to the Emergency Department (ED) in Frankston Hospital between 2012 and 2016. Peninsula Health Human Research Ethics Committee approved of this project. A total of 380 non-consecutive patients with aural FBs were included in this study and had a median [min, max] age of 21 [1, 85] years and 51% were male. Two hundred and seventy-eight (73.2%) had their aural FB successfully removed on the first attempt; the remaining on the second or more attempt. Forty (10.5%) patients had complications following aural FB removal. Increasing the number of aural FB removal attempts predicted post-extraction complications [3 attempts: odds ratio 3.4 (95% CI, 1.03–11.16), P=0.044]. Aural FB removal should be managed by experienced medical personnel and all failed attempts should be referred to ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialty.