Vocal Cord Paralysis Secondary to Impacted Esophageal Foreign Bodies in

ABSTRACT. Impacted foreign bodies in the esophaguscan result in respiratory symptoms including stridor andaphonia. Several mechanisms have been proposed to ex-plain these symptoms, but the possibility of vocal cordparalysis and its cause has not been adequately empha-sized.Two cases of young children with esophageal foreignbody are described; both presented with respiratorysymptoms, 1 with aphonia and the other with stridor. Inboth cases, the symptoms were secondary to vocal cordparalysis. A possible mechanism of recurrent nerve in-jury is proposed. Pediatrics 2001;107(6). URL: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/107/6/e101; esopha-geal foreign body, vocal cord paralysis, recurrent nerveinjury, respiratory symptoms. E sophageal foreign bodies are a common andpotentially serious cause of morbidity andmortality in children. The common presentingsymptoms of esophageal foreign bodies are excessivedrooling, poor feeding, dysphagia, and vomiting.Occasionally, esophageal foreign bodies, particularlythose with a long duration in the esophagus, maycause respiratory symptoms, such as cough, stridor,and wheezing.In this report we describe 2 cases of infants whohad ingested foreign bodies that were impacted inthe esophagus and whose presenting symptomswere primarily respiratory. In both cases, fiberopticbronchoscopy revealed posterior budging of the tra-chea with vocal cord paralysis.