Short article: Etiologic profile and endoscopic findings in immunocompromised children and adolescents with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) is one of the potential causes of increased morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients, but data on characteristics of GIB in immunocompromised children are sparse. This study aimed to identify the etiology, endoscopic, and histologic findings of GIB in immunocompromised children. This was a retrospective descriptive study. We identified 33 patients (aged<20 years) and 45 GIB episodes related to GIB between January 2007 and April 2015 from a tertiary care and teaching hospital. The mean age at endoscopy was 10.7±4.6 years. Most common indications for endoscopy were melena in upper GIB and hematochezia in lower GIB. The median delay of duration between GIB presentation to endoscopy was 3 days. All except one child had at least one endoscopic abnormality. The most common cause of upper GIB was cytomegalovirus (CMV)-related gastrointestinal disease (35%), followed by esophageal varices (26%), and the most common cause of lower GIB was CMV-related gastrointestinal disease (55%). Fourteen percent of patients died during upper GIB episodes and 15% died during lower GIB episodes. Among immunocompromised individuals aged younger than 20 years presenting with GIB, CMV-related gastrointestinal disease is the most prevalent in our study population. However, the etiology of immunocompromised state needs to be taken into consideration when evaluating these children presenting with GIB.