Foreign Body Aspiration Complicated by Pneumothorax in Children: HCUP-KID Perspective

Abstract

Objective: Children with airway foreign bodies (AFB) occasionally have pneumothorax complicating their course. We aimed to compare the clinical course of these children to those without this complication. Methods: Data was obtained from the 2016 Kids’ Inpatient Database of Healthcare Cost Utilization Project. ICD-10 code of T17XXXX was used to locate records. They were grouped based on the presence of preoperative pneumothorax, postoperative pneumothorax, or none. Variables included demographics, AFB type, AFB location, length of stay (LOS), pneumothorax treatment modality, mortality, hospital setting, primary payor, and total charges. Results: A total of 4165 children with AFB were identified, 57.8% male and 42.2% female. Of these 75 (1.8%) patients presented with preoperative pneumothorax, 29 (0.7%) with postoperative pneumothorax, and 4061 (97.5%) with no pneumothorax. The preoperative pneumothorax patients were older than the postoperative pneumothorax and unaffected AFB patients (mean age = 9.5 [95% CI 7.7-11.3] vs 8.2 [95% CI 5.4-11.1] vs 5.5 [95% CI 5.3-5.7]; P < .001). Preoperative pneumothorax patients incurred higher total charges than the other groups (mean US = $939K [95% Cl 673K-1,204K] vs $599K [95% Cl 377K-821K] vs $228K [95% Cl 211K-244K]; P < .001), had a longer LOS in days (mean = 37.7 [95% Cl 28.7-46.7] vs 31.6 [95% Cl 16.9-46.2] vs 15.8 [95% CI 15.0-16.7]; P < .001), and had a higher mortality rate (16% vs 0% vs 3.7%, P < .001). Conclusion: Pneumothorax can significantly impact a child’s hospital course, and preoperative pneumothorax should alert clinicians to the potential for increased mortality risk.