Foreign-body Ingestions in Children During COVID-19 Pandemic in a Pediatric Referral Center

Antonio Pizzol; Caterina Rigazio; Pier Luigi Calvo; Federico Scottoni; Alessandro Pane; Fabrizio Gennari; Fabio Cisarò

doi:10.1097/PG9.0000000000000018

Foreign-body Ingestions in Children During COVID-19 Pandemic in a Pediatric Referral Center

JPGN Rep. 2020 Nov 11;1(2):e018. doi: 10.1097/PG9.0000000000000018. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Authors

Antonio Pizzol¹, Caterina Rigazio¹, Pier Luigi Calvo¹, Federico Scottoni², Alessandro Pane², Fabrizio Gennari², Fabio Cisarò¹

Affiliations

¹ Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit, Regina Margherita Children's Hospital, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Turin, Italy.
² Department of Pediatric General Surgery, Regina Margherita Children's Hospital, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Turin, Italy.

Abstract

In February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed Italy. We retrospectively reviewed all attendances and emergency (A&E) admissions due to foreign-body ingestions (FBIs) to an Italian pediatric referral hospital, from February 24 to April 24, 2020, COVID-19 lockdown and compared them with the same period in the previous 4 years. A total of 101 cases were recorded. Mean age of admission was 4.6 years. Groups did not differ for gender (P = 0.4) or age (P = 0.3). Among FBIs ingestions, 24.0% occurred in children with <2 years of age and 47.5% in children from 2 to 6 years of age. In the 2020 study period, 9 patients were seen for batteries ingestion compared with a median value of one among compared periods. The rates of batteries ingestions increased significantly over the observational period (P < 0.001). We report a dramatic increase in batteries ingestions in children, a potentially fatal event, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Keywords: COVID-19; button batteries; foreign-body ingestion.