Endoscopic esophageal foreign body removal among children at Lubaga Hospital, Kampala, Uganda.

BACKGROUND

Diagnostic upper gastrointestinal endoscopy involves examination of the lining of the esophagus, stomach and part of the duodenum. Interventional endoscopy in addition to evaluating the upper gastrointestinal tract to make a diagnosis, also offers a treatment benefit. Traditionally, esophageal foreign bodies (FBs) in Uganda were removed using rigid endoscopy. We therefore report an emerging trend of using flexible endoscopy to remove these FBs.

OBJECTIVE

To describe participant characteristics and endoscopic findings among children who underwent esophageal FB removal in Lubaga Hospital in Kampala.

METHODS

This was a retrospective review of endoscopy reports for children who underwent endoscopic esophageal FB removal at Lubaga Hospital from December 2014 to March 2022.

RESULTS

Overall, 61 symptomatic children underwent this procedure. The majority of the FBs were removed by flexible endoscopy (n=55, 90.16%). The mean age of the participants was 7.88 (SD=2.12) years old. The majority of the children were females (72.13%) and coins were the most ingested FBs (84%), others included steel crucifix, nails etc. The upper esophageal sphincter was the commonest site for FB impaction (74%).

CONCLUSION

We report high success rates of 90.16% for endoscopic removal of impacted esophageal foreign bodies among Ugandan children using the now widely available flexible endoscopy.