Introduction: Foreign body removal is a common reason for children to attend the Emergency Department. Generally, aural and nasal foreign bodies are not associated with immediate morbidity unless they are button batteries. There can be consequences of migration and removal. 
Methods: Hospital Episode Statistics for 2010-2016 were used to calculate the number of nasal and aural foreign bodies that have been removed in hospital. The data for adults and children has been compared. 
Results: 8,752 nasal and 17,325 aural foreign bodies have been removed from adults and children over the course of 6 years. Children were responsible for 95% of the 8,353 nasal and 85% of the 14,875 aural FB presentations. Children aged 1-4 years are most at risk of FB injury.
Conclusion: Children are more likely to present to hospital than adults due to a foreign body in the ear or nose. Aural bodies were more likely to need removal in hospital for both populations. Authors believe that these require identification and removal by an ENT specialist to prevent morbidity. The overall number of procedures performed on an annual basis in children has not reduced over the study period an average of 1218 nasal FB removals and 2,479 Aural FB removals is performed each year with an annual cost of £2,880,148 to NHS England.

BACO International 2018