The simple act of enjoying a meal can sometimes be fatal. In Japan, foreign body airway obstruction (FBAO) kills almost 9,000 people every year and is the 2nd most common cause of accidental death.

 

MOCHI stands for “multi-center observational choking investigation.” We aim to reduce deaths due to FBAO by advancing science in this area. Mochi also refers to a Japanese word for sticky rice cakes. Many Japanese people associate this food with the potential risk for FBAO.

 

Our ongoing research is the first large-scale prospective cohort study on FBAO and is funded by Japanese Association for Acute Medicine. Currently, 28 hospitals across Japan are participating in the registry. (the map and list of the hospitals) (Norii, 2020)

 

As part of the preparatory work for the abovementioned study, we first created a retrospective registry in 2019 and were fortunate enough to publish several peer-reviewed papers. In those studies, we found that the incidence of vegetative state or death increased when the FBAO time exceeded 10 minutes (Igarashi, 2022). We also discovered that foreign body removal with a vacuum cleaner was successful in about one-third of patients (Norii, 2021).

 

It is our hope that through continuing this research, we can ensure that people enjoy our popular dish without putting their lives in danger.

 

While this research is only conducted within the country at the moment, we are open to any inquiries, suggestions and opinions.

 

Please feel free to contact us at

mochi-admin@umin.ac.jp