Endoscopic findings of the digestive tract secondary to caustic ingestion in children seen at the Emergency Department.

BACKGROUND: Caustic ingestion in pediatrics is a common cause of visits to the Emergency Department. An indiscriminate use of cleaning chemicals and an easy access to them are determining factors for these injuries.

POPULATION AND METHODS: Descriptive, analytical study. Children aged < 16 years hospitalized between January 1998 and December 2017 were included. The ingested caustic substance was identified as acid or alkaline. A gastrointestinal endoscopy was done to establish the burn grade. The grade of the burn was compared to the type of caustic substance using the χ2 test or the Fisher's exact test; a P value < 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS: A total of 133 children were admitted to the Emergency Department due to caustic ingestion. The caustic agent was acid in 41 % of cases and alkaline, in 59 %. The most common acid caustic substance was muriatic acid (36.8 %) and the most common alkaline caustic agent was caustic soda (41.4 %). An esophageal burn was the most common consequence of caustic soda ingestion compared to other caustic agents (p = 0.001), whereas muriatic acid ingestion was the most statistically significant cause of stomach burn (p = 0.001) and duodenal burn (p = 0.002). The age group that most commonly ingested some caustic agent (93.2 %) corresponded to children younger than 5 years.

CONCLUSIONS: The most common type of ingested caustic agent was alkaline, which caused esophageal burn; whereas, the ingestion of an acid caustic substance caused stomach and duodenal burns, as evidenced by endoscopy.