audit of pediatric upper gastrointestinal endoscopies

ABSTRACT

One hundred upper gastrointestinal endoscopies were performed in 90 children [age ranging from 2 months to 12 years, Mean 7 years 2 months] over a period of 18 months, by the pediatricians, at the adult endoscopy unit of KRL Hospital, Islamabad. We used an Olympus GIF N30 fibreoptic endoscope with an external diameter of 5mm. Fifty-four% of our patients were female where as the major indications were recurrent upper abdominal pain [n=36], chronic diarrhoea [n=28], short stature/failure to thrive [n=13], portal hypertension [n=5], and GI bleeding [n=3] and other [n=12]. Sixty-three endoscopies were carried out under general anaesthesia, 9 patients needed mild sedation and the rest of the 28 children did not need any sedation or anaesthesia. No complications were observed during or after the procedure. In total 67 antral biopsies, 60 duodenal biopsies and 5 sclerotherapies were performed. The histological diagnosis were gastritis [64%] of antral biopsies, coeliac disease [55%] and duodenitis [16.6%] incase of duodenal biopsies. Pediatric GI endoscopy is invaluable and can be successfully. Performed by pediatricians, in an adult endoscopy unit, at centers where separate pediatric setups are not available