Many changes and advances have been achieved in the last years, so that emergency endoscopy has now a definite role also in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in childhood. In order to determinate main indications to endoscopic examination, and which are the most useful diagnostic and therapeutic measures that should be performed, we examined the records of 202 patients (aged 1 day-14 years) undergone emergency endoscopy from June 1979 to January 1990. Patients were referred to endoscopy because of foreign bodies or caustic ingestion, hematemesis, and in one patient a suspected intussusception. We didn't record any complication. Our study shows that emergency endoscopy has a definite role also in pediatric age and gives a diagnostic and therapeutic gain in the management of many diseases.