A Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Findings in Children Presented with Chronic Liver Disease

Abstract

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the upper gastrointestinal endoscopic findings in the pediatric population with chronic liver disease.

Study Design: cross-sectional study

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pediatric Medicine, National Institute of Child Health between July 2021 to March 2022

Material and Methods: All children aged 1 year to 14 years who were presented with clinical features of chronic liver disease were included in the study. Children younger than one year or above the age of 15 years, with malignant disease or those diagnosed with hemolytic anemia and who had a history of multiple blood transfusions were excluded.

Results: A total of 72 patients were included in the study with a mean age of 7.71 ± 2.51 years. Thirteen (18.1%) patients had Grade III varices and four (5.6%) patients had fundal varices. The Child-Pugh score was significantly associated with advanced grades of esophageal varices (p<0.001). Splenomegaly was found to be significantly associated with grade II and grade III esophageal varices with a frequency of 100% and 76.9%, respectively (p<0.0001). 61.6% of patients with grade III esophageal varices had less than 10,000 platelets, albeit the relationship was not significant.

Conclusion: The present study reported the presence of esophageal varices in more than one-half of the study population. Both splenomegaly and higher Child-pugh score correlated significantly with the advanced esophageal varices.

Keywords: ascites, bilirubin, chronic liver disease, endoscopy, hepatomegaly, platelets, splenomegaly