Concept of foreign body-its past and present

Abstract

Believe it or not, once upon a time, to remove a foreign body from the ear canal, the clinicians used to introduce the severed head of a living lizard which was still then gasping for breath. It was hoped that, the opening and closing jaw movements of the gasping lizard would at one time grasp the Foreign Body. Afterwards the removal of the lizard's head would also lead to the removal of the Foreign Body.Today the safe and simple removal is not considered as the ultimate treatment of Foreign body. Amongst the victims of self introduced Foreign bodies, are mostly children. Specially those who do it repeatedly and on others, are thought to be mentally retarded or frustrated. Such children should be subjected to Psychoanalysis and if the said study confirms one to be so, he should be given appropriate treatment. This will help him to grow normally by alleviating his various other behavioural disorders. In addition, it will stop his tendeny to do it again and save him suffering from problems of other mental disorders which can crop up in his future life if left untreated.