Foreign‐body Ingestions in Children During COVID‐19 Pandemic in a Pediatric Referral Center
Antonio Pizzol, C. Rigazio, Pier Luigi Calvo, Federico Scottoni, Alessandro Pane, Fabrizio Gennari, Fabio Cisarò
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.