Foreign bodies in the airway: eighteen-year retrospective study.

Sixty-four cases (male:female = 43:21) with foreign bodies in the trachea and bronchi are reviewed. They had been hospitalized in Nagoya City University Hospital between January 1976 and December 1993. Fifty-four patients (84.2%) were 2 years of age or younger. Peanuts predominated (40 cases; 62.5%) among the foreign bodies. Foreign bodies were found in the right bronchus in 26 patients (40.7%), in the left bronchus in 23, in the trachea in 8, and in multiple regions in 7.