Endoscopic findings in cirrhotic children candidates for liver transplantation

Abstract

Background: Liver cirrhosis is an end-stage liver failure that can develop as a result of acute or chronic liver disease. Patients are at risk of fatal complications such as portal hypertension and bleeding from esophageal varices. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined the endoscopic findings in child patients <18 years with cirrhosis qualifying as candidates for liver transplantation. Our subjects were children admitted from 2012 to 2017 to the Shiraz Organ Transplantation Center of Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The data was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. Results: We studied 199 patients (49.2% boys) with liver cirrhosis admitted for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Their average age was 6.2 ±4.7 years old. The most common clinical sign present at admission was icterus (58.8%). The mean values of the children’s Child-Pugh and PELD/MELD scores were 8.53 ±2.34 and 14.85 ±14.93, respectively. Of 199 children examined, 145 total (72.8%) suffered from esophageal varices, further divided by severity into grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 – 39 (19.7%), 53 (26.8%), 42 (21.2%), 11 (5.6%), respectively. Further symptoms, such as portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG), gastric erythema, fundal varices, gastric erosion, and gastric ulcer were found in 31.1%, 15.1%, 6.5%, 5.5%, and 2% of the patients, respectively. No associations were observed between esophageal or gastric varices and Child-Pugh (P = 0.076), PELD/MELD score (P = 0.607), clinical symptoms, laboratory parameters, or underlying diseases. Conclusion: Our patients’ main cause of liver cirrhosis was biliary atresia, and the most common presenting sign in endoscopy was esophageal varices. Keywords biliary atresia, esophageal varices, jaundice, endoscopic treatment