[Pediatric upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: experience in a hospital setting in Côte d'Ivoire]

The purpose of this report was to describe epidemiological aspects of endoscopic upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at a pediatric teaching hospital in Cocody, Côte d'Ivoire.

The records of all patients under 15 years of age who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in the gastrointestinal endoscopy unit of a teaching hospital of Cocody between January 1, 2000 and April 30, 2006 were reviewed. The following parameters were compiled: age, sex, indications, name of endoscopist, type of sedation, gastric biopsy to detect Helicobacter pylori, and endoscopic findings.

Pediatric gastroscopy accounted for 1% of procedures performed in the upper gastrointestinal endoscopy unit. Patient ages ranged from 6 months to 15 years and M/F sex ratio was 0.88. The procedures were ordered by general practitioners in 55% of cases, gastroenterologists in 14%, and pediatricians in 10%. Sedation with intravenous midazolam 0.25 was used in 74% of patients (n = 38). No incident or complication was observed. Tolerance of the examination by the child was considered as poor by the operator in 96% of cases. The main indications for endoscopy were epigastralgia in 54% of cases, vomiting in 13.7%, and gastrointestinal bleeding in 13.7%. The procedure was performed or supervised by an operator with over ten years of experience in gastrointestinal endoscopy in 55.1% and 54.0% of cases respectively. The main endoscopic finding was duodenogastric bile reflux in 23.5% of cases. Gastroscopy was normal in 43% of patients. Gastric biopsy to detect Helicobacter pylori was performed in 23% of patients.

Pediatric gastroscopy performed under mild sedation by experienced endoscopists is a safe procedure for detecting lesions and obtaining biopsies for histological examination.