Foreign body aspiration is a rare incident in adult population.Tracheostomy is a common airway procedure for long term life support. Fracture and hence aspiration of a tracheostomy tube in the tracheobronchial tree is a rare late complication, which can be potentially life threatening.We report a rare case of 25 year old male who aspirated fractured metallic tracheostomy tube into left main bronchus. Case report

A twenty five year old male who had long term metallic tracheostomy tube in situ, presented with a complaint of intermittent cough for one week duration .Examination revealed missing part of inner tracheostomy tube, which had subsequently migrated into tracheobronchial tree. Subsequent chest Xray confirmed the presence of part of tube in the left main bronchus. Rigid bronchoscopic removal of foreign body through tracheotomy stoma was planned and was successful.

A periodic tracheostomy tube care, timely check-ups for signs of wear and tear of inner metallic tube can possibly eliminate such avoidable late complications.

Metallic tracheostomy tube, aspiration, left main bronchus