What happens to food that accidently enters your lungs?
In: 2
You eject it through violent coughing fits. ;p Your body gets really, *really* emphatic about removing it.
Otherwise you run the risk of getting “aspiration pneumonia”.
Tl;dr
1. Most of the time it’s not a problem as our cough reflex is very effective and we cough what every it is up
2. Stuck in trachea = 💀
3main bronchus difficulty breathing and usually needs removed urgently
4. Smaller airways = blocks the small area of lung behind it, mucus builds up, inflammation is triggered and usually infection occurs until the blockage either dissolves/broken down by the inflammation, but permanent damage my have occurred
5. Liquid into the smallest airways, inflammation, and often infection which will resolve with antibiotics.
Strap in because this is quite long, but covers the the 5 areas above in more detail. I’ve numbered them incase you want to skip to a particular bit
1.
Most of the time you will cough it up. Either into your mouth and spit it out, or high enough in you airway that you swallow it. This is as long as you cough reflex is intact and you have sufficient muscle strength.
The vast majority of the time we accidental inhale something, our cough reflex at the time is enough to get the food or liquid out. We get a fright but recover quickly
2.
Sometimes this won’t happen for various reasons.
If it is large enough to block your trachea (the large airway past your vocal cord and before it splits in two for each lung) then you will either cough it up or suffocate. You wouldn’t be getting any air into your lungs, oxygen level in blood would fall rapidly, brain survival mechanisms kick in and you’ll cough. If it stays there you pass out and bye bye. If you are squeamish move on to the next paragraph as it’s about some real anatomy specimens I’ve seen, so move on now ……. I’ve seen a preserved lung and trachea section in a medical museum from a you child who choked on a peanut. It was sat in the trachea a 1-2 cm below the vocal cords and was the same size as the airway. Clear why it would stop airflow. I’ve also seen autopsy photos of the same but with a grape. Both are the right size to cause problems sadly. Cut up grapes if you’re giving them to little kids. And no whole peanuts for them either. Cut up in things or peanut butter are all good (unless an allergy obviously!).
3.
Next, what it they get further down. If it gets past the split in the trachea but stays in the next big airway (main bronchus) to block that. There will be coughing but you’ve still got one lung to work off so your getting oxygen. You’ll have difficulty breathing most likely so end up at hospital as an emergency and need to get it removed.
4.
And if it gets further down; so if it gets further down into the smaller airways and blocks one of them, you’ll have the coughing again initially but as it’s so deep it’ll be difficult for you to get out with that. The cough long fit is likely to settle relatively quickly. You’re now breathing with most of your lungs working, expect a small area beyond the blockage. That area might collapse down a bit and get backed up with the natural mucus that the lungs produce. This is a nice breeding ground for bacteria. An infection and inflammation will develop there. One of two things will happen. Either the inflammation will be enough to break down the food and it will be cleared with the mucus and infection with antibiotics but the chest infection would take longer to resolve than normal.
Or it’s either other food just isn’t breaking down enough to allow it to be cleared despite multiple courses of antibiotics. And the chest infection won’t resolve. A bronchoscope may be arranged by investigating physicians. And If it’s in one of the larger airways, but smaller than the main bronchus, the bronchoscope may show it and allow it to be removed. If it’s in an even smaller airway then you can’t get down there with the camera to find it, and the cause for the non-resolving chest infection won’t be clear but may be inferred from the history. Ongoing antibiotics and good chest physiotherapy is what is going to help deal with this to clear the airway. Unfortunately, if you’re getting this kind of stage, it maybe that there will be permanent damage to that area of lung, even after the infection has resolved. While the inflammation is ongoing (longer than your typical simple chest infection) the airway are getting damaged by it. They will often enlarge and become stiff from scarring. This means that this are will be prone to infection in the future unfortunately.
5.
What about liquid; this can obviously go down to the smallest airways. And unusually the ones at the bases of the lungs, because, well, gravity!
It will cause an immune response that’s causes inflammation. And depending on what was inhaled, it may cause a chemical reaction which would result in inflammation. This inflammation fills the smallest airways of the area affected with fluid and again this area may become infected as as result of it not being cleared by the natural mucus in the lungs effectively since there is so much (one of the roles of the thin layer of mucus our lungs make is to catch inhaled small particulars and the mucus naturally flows up and out to get rid of them). This chest infection will respond to antibiotics
As I said above, most of the time none of this happens because the cough reflex is very effective. However, if someone has some condition that weakens or removes the cough reflex or effectiveness of the cough, then it’s more likely that it won’t shift the food and a chest infection. My specialist are is children so I’ll stick with them. Causes of a poor cough reflex would be things like severe quadriplegic cerebral palsy or similar severe neurodevelopmental problems. The cough reflex might be there but the cough isn’t strong enough if the muscles are weak, such as can occur in muscular dystrophy. There will the similar type things that causes these problems in adults, such as strokes.
And if you’ve actually read all of that, go have a nap. Well done
You’ll either cough it up. Get sick. Die. Or if it’s small enough your body might literally absorb it as it deteriorates
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