Delayed diagnosis of tracheobronchial foreign body (FB) aspiration is not uncommon in children. It occurs when symptoms are underappreciated and/or radiological findings are overlooked. In such cases serious complications can arise, which make the diagnosis and removal of the FB much more difficult. Here, we present a case where FB aspiration was misdiagnosed as asthma after a radio-opaque FB on the chest radiograph was missed, leading to formation of a tracheo-oesophageal fistula as a rare delayed complication.

No abstract