Children who suffer from esophageal button battery impactions (BBI) are in grave danger. Although there are expert-opinion recommendations to assist in the management of the group, little research has examined the influence of these guidelines on the clinical treatment of these patients. For a study, researchers sought to characterize the care of these patients before and after the implementation of guidelines at a particular facility. It was a retrospective cohort analysis of patients with esophageal BBI in a single-center, big volume urban academic pediatric hospital system before and after the implementation of expert-opinion guidelines (2007–2017) and 2018–2020.
The cohort included 31 patients before and 32 patients after the recommendations were implemented. The features of the patients did not differ across groups. Following 2018, a large increase in the number of patients who got acetic acid irrigation, initial cross-sectional imaging, and serial cross-sectional imaging. There was also an increase in ICU stays, number of intubations, nil per os time, and hospital duration of stay. There was no difference in the results of the patients.
The report covered a large cohort of pediatric esophageal BBI before and after recommendations were implemented. The findings showed that there was higher adherence to recommendations, which resulted in more cross-sectional imaging, which led to more ICU hospitalizations, longer lengths of stay, and more nil per os time. The study underlined the importance of multidisciplinary guidelines as well as more multi-institutional research.
Reference:journals.lww.com/jpgn/Abstract/2022/02000/Evolving_Clinical_Care_in_Esophageal_Button.12.aspx
