The role of endoscopy in caustic ingestion in the pediatric population: experience in a tertiary center.

Abstract

caustic ingestion in children is rare but has potentially serious consequences. to analyze the clinical and endoscopic features and the type of caustic ingested in our population. the upper endoscopies performed in this setting, as well as the characteristics of patients and caustics, were analyzed from 2010 to 2018. fifty-one endoscopies were performed (48 cases of witnessed intake or high suspicion and three with a low suspicion) in patients with a mean age of 2.55 years. Alkali ingestion was more frequent (88.2 %) and 56.9 % of the endoscopies were normal, which was more frequent among those who ingested bleach (72 %). Alkali tended to produce more esophageal injuries (31.1 %) and acids tended to produce esophageal (20 %) and esophageal-gastric injuries (20 %). Four patients developed esophageal stenosis during follow-up. even though more than half of the studies were normal, endoscopy is important in the diagnosis and prognosis of these patients.