[Tracheobronchial foreign body in children. Is anamnesis alone enough to indicate tracheobronchoscopy?]

From 1989-1993 we performed rigid bronchoscopies in 86 children in whom foreign body aspirations were suspected. In 72 cases, foreign bodies were identified in the tracheobronchial tree. In the remaining 14, no foreign body was found. Boys outnumbered girls. The most common type of foreign body was a peanut. The predilection of the foreign body was to fall into the right main bronchus. If the history indicated foreign body aspiration, a chest x-ray was not found to be necessary except for forensic interest.

[Rare malignant laryngeal tumors]

Six rare malignant tumors were found in a group of 136 laryngeal malignancies accessioned between 1990 and 1992. The other 130 neoplasms were squamous cell carcinomas. One case each of an adenocarcinoma, a mucoepidermoid carcinoma and an undifferentiated carcinoma of nasopharyngeal type were of epithelial origin; a case of a malignant fibrous histiocytoma, a chondrosarcoma and a plasmacytoma were of mesenchymal origin. The clinical presentations, histological findings, and therapy employed in the six cases are discussed and the available literature reviewed.