Hematemesis in infants induced by cow milk allergy

This study was conducted in order to analyze the clinical manifestations, the endoscopic findings, the histology of the gastrointestinal mucosa, the treatments and the clinical course in infants who had hematemesis induced by cow milk allergy. The medical records were reviewed retrospectively. The criteria for the diagnosis of CMA included elimination of cow milk formula resulting in improvement of symptoms, specific endoscopic and histologic findings as well as the exclusion of other causes. Twenty-three infants with a diagnosis of hematemesis were analyzed, which included 20 infants with CMA and 3 infants with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). In the CMA group were 12 girls and 8 boys whose ages were 4.3 +/- 1.4 months. The onset of vomiting after starting cow milk formulas was 70.6 +/- 48.9 days. Gastroduodenoscopy was performed on 15 patients showing erythema, erosion and friability of the gastric mucosa in all patients and lymphoid hyperplasia in the duodenal bulb in 7 patients. Eight patients had mild to moderate eosinophilic infiltration and 5 patients had eosinophilia. Cow milk formulas were changed to other formulas: two children were initially given extensively hydrolyzed casein formulas and later followed by a soy formula, 14 were given a soy formula and 4 were given partially whey hydrolyzed formulas. All patients showed clinical signs of improvement a few days later. Patients that were able to tolerate cow milk were 1.5 +/- 0.9 years old. During the follow-up period (2.6 +/- 1.8 years after treatment) 4 patients were diagnosed with asthma, 4 patients with chronic respiratory symptoms, 4 patients with constipation and 2 others with food allergies. CMA induced gastritis in infancy may not be classified as eosinophilic gastritis because of the low level of eosinophilic infiltration. The elimination of cow milk and subsequent substitution with a soy formula is the proper management.