Which procedure is both diagnostic and therapeutic for foreign body aspiration?

• A. Bronchoscopy
• B. MRI
• C. CT scan
• D. Endoscopy

Answer: (A)

When a foreign body is suspected in the airway, you want a method that both shows you what’s there and lets you remove it right away. Bronchoscopy provides direct visualization of the trachea and bronchi, so you can identify the object and assess any airway injury. Importantly, it also uses retrieval tools to grasp and extract the object during the same session, making it both diagnostic and therapeutic. Imaging tests like MRI or CT can help locate or suggest the presence of a foreign body, but they don’t remove it and thus aren’t therapeutic. Endoscopy is a general term for viewing internal passages; for airway foreign bodies, the specific airway-directed approach—bronchoscopy—is the procedure used for both seeing and removing the object.