A novel approach for comparing patterns of foreign body injuries across countries: A case study comparing European Countries and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Objectives: The present study aimed at analyzing the characteristics of FB injuries from Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), a rapidly growing newly industrialized country, and to compare them with cases from European countries. Methods: The analysis is based on FB injury cases included in the Susy Safe registry. Cases from the Ear-NoseThroat (ENT) Clinic, University Clinical Center of Tuzla (B&H) were compared with cases from European countries participating in the Susy Safe project. Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was performed to elucidate differences within a large data set regarding mechanisms and objects causing injuries. Results: The results of the MCA showed that the first three dimensions explained 43% of the variability. The first dimension was identified by children hospitalized for FB ingestion, the second one by children hospitalized for FB aspiration (lower airways), and the third one by children with an FB in the ear or in the upper airways. The analysis of the median of coordinates of factors contributing to each dimension showed that the greatest difference between B&H and European countries regarded the third one. Looking at the profile of these patients, it might be suggested that the proportion of males and females and the type of activity in which they were involved at time of injury occurrence are different among the countries considered Conclusions: This study proposes a simple tool for assessing differences among countries in the distribution of FB injuries. This case study shows that B&H has different patterns of FB injuries in the upper respiratory tract.