Sir.—I read with interest the articles by Schunk et al1 and Caravati et al2 and Dr Fulginiti's editorial3 in the May 1989 issue of AJDC on the management of coin ingestion. Dr Fulginiti, the reviewers, and the editorial staff were startled to find that over 70% of the pediatricians surveyed in Salt Lake City, Utah, would not have obtained a roentgenogram of an asymptomatic child who had ingested a coin. I have been a practicing pediatrician for 23 years and I, too, would not have sent the asymptomatic child to the emergency department. I would like to comment on the Schunk et al article and on the literature on coin ingestion, and present a few of my own findings and observations.
The editors have not served the readers of this journal well in publishing the part of the summary in the Schunk et al article