Esophageal Dysphagia in Children: State of the Art and Proposal for a Symptom-Based Diagnostic Approach.

ABSTRACT: Pediatric esophageal dysphagia (PED) is an infrequent condition that can be determined by a large number of disorders. The etiologic diagnosis is challenging due to overlapping clinical phenotypes and to the absence of pediatric diagnostic guidelines. This review aims to summarize the most relevant causes of ED during childhood, highlight the clinical scenarios of PED presentation and discuss the indications of available diagnostic tools. Available information supports that PED should always be investigated as it can underlie life-threatening conditions (e.g., foreign body ingestion, mediastinal tumors), represent the complication of benign disorders (e.g., peptic stenosis) or constitute the manifestation of organic diseases (e.g., eosinophilic esophagitis, achalasia). Therefore, the diagn

SUBMITTER: Lanzoni G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9263077 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature