Pediatric upper gastrointestinal endoscopic findings in Kaduna, Nigeria

Background Endoscopy is an important diagnostic and interventional procedure for children presenting with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. In resource-limited countries like Africa, the practice of pediatric endoscopy remains rudimentary, lacking in trained pediatric endoscopists and appropriate-sized endoscopes. Patients and methods This was a retrospective study of the findings in all children and adolescents referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGIE) within a period of 2 years from February 2014 to February 2016. Results In all, 86 children and adolescents were referred for UGIE. There were 32 (37.2%) males and 54 (62.8%) females. The mean age was 13 years. Upper abdominal pain (47.7%), dyspepsia (19.8%), and upper GI bleeding (11.6%) were the major indications for referral. Fourteen (15.1%) patients were found to have normal UGIE findings. Commonest abnormalities seen at endoscopy were gastritis in 18 (22.1%), 14 (16.2%) had hiatus hernia, eight (9.3%) esophageal varices, seven (8.1%) gastric erosions, six (7.0%) had duodenitis, while five (5.8%) patients had esophagitis. Foreign body and duodenal ulcer were seen in three (3.5%) patients each, gastric ulcer and bile reflux in two patients each, while duodenal worms, esophageal atresia, caustic ingestion, and antral diverticular were seen in one (1.2%) patient each. Conclusion This study shows that endoscopy as an investigative tool in pediatric patients has high diagnostic yield with vital therapeutic potential, and is safe in the assessment of GI diseases.