Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in Sudanese Infants and Children

Background: Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy [UGIE] in children is safe and useful. Pediatric gastrointestinal endoscopy was introduced relatively recently in Sudan. The indications and patterns of endoscopic findings of UGIE in Sudanese children were not reported before. Objectives: Our objective was to identify the indications and findings of UGIE among Sudanese children and to compare that with others findings. Patients and methods: The Demographic data of the first 200 children less than 15 years of age who underwent UGIE during January 2005 to December 2007 were retrieved from their files and analysed.Results: Two hundred children had UGIE. Their ages ranged between 6 months and 15 years. 80 and 20 had UGIE because of hematemesis and abdominal pain respectively. 50 children had esophageal varices while peptic ulcer disease was found in 19. 65 out of 100 children who presented with failure to thrive, short stature, and persistent diarrhoea were found to have macroscopic duodenal lesions. 65 duodenal biopsies showed total villous atrophy. H. pylori infection andgastritis were found in 165out of 180 biopsies [91.7%].Ultrasound abdomen was performed in the 125 children who presented with hematemesis or abdominal pain. 20 out ofthe 52 who had ultrasonographic abnormalities were found to have cavernous transformation of the portal vein, whereas10 children had features of liver cirrhosis.Conclusions: The patterns of upper GIT diseases in the study population were comparable to literature. However, H. pylori infection and cavernous transformation of the portal vein were higher than reports from other parts of the world. Keywords : cavernous transformation, portal vein, H. pylori , hematemesis, esophageal varices. Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 2 (2) 2007: pp. 91-94