Post corrosive ingestion in pediatrics; precaution and awareness; retrospective hospital-based study

Abstract

Background: Both acidic and alkaline products that are corrosive when ingested might result in major complications. This research focused on pediatric patients, including males up to 12 years old and females up to 14 years old, who had a history of corrosive ingestion and needed an upper endoscopy as part of their assessment. Method: This study involved a retrospective analysis of pediatric patients diagnosed with Post corrosive ingestion at Gastroenterology department in Children's Hospital, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The analysis covered a seven-year period from 2015 to 2022. The research population consisted of 57 pediatric patients who underwent endoscopic examination of corrosive intake after presenting with corrosive ingestion. Results:We included 69 pediatric patients with corrosive ingestion. Mean patient age was 37.2 ± 31.5, (59.4%) were male. Corrosive ingestion was alkali in 44 subject (63.8%). Regarding patient's symptoms, the most prevalent symptom was vomiting 53.6% and 10.1% of patients were a symptomatic. The majority of patients 43.5% has no signs at presentation, 37.7% had swelling, 26.1% erythema and 21.7% had ulcer. Regarding endoscopic findings 50.7% of patients found to be grade 0 esophageal injury. No statistically significant difference was detected between endoscopy findings and type of corrosive ingested. Most of the cases (92.7%) were reported with no complications. Conclusion: According to this study, corrosive damage still ranks highly among pediatric emergencies and presents a significant risk of sequelae, mostly stricture.