ABSTRACT
Child abuse by neglect or direct non-accidental injury (NAI) may be relevant. However, adults also present with foreign bodies which may be due to a chance event or accident (e.g. pin inhalation or an insect in the ear) or may herald an underlying pathology (e.g. oesophageal malignancy and food bolus obstruction). A variety of techniques to remove aural foreign bodies exist and the technique adopted is determined by the foreign body characteristics, position and cooperation of the patient. There has been a significant and increasing rise in battery foreign body incidents since one of the earliest reports of battery ingestion in the 1970s. Magnets have been used to remove metallic nasal foreign bodies. The fashion for magnetic earrings across the nasal alar region has inadvertently resulted in some cases of the magnets being misplaced and attracting across the nasal septum resulting in septal injury and even septal perforation due to pressure necrosis.
