Furlano R.: Foreign Body Ingestion in Children
Greetings – what child of the 1960s can use that word without becoming a space alien, alighting from an interstellar craft? – "Greetings, Earthlings!" But today, of course, it's greetings to ESPGHAN podcast listeners, those logging in from other planets as well as on this one.
The guest today is Prof Dr Raoul Furlano, a wearer of many hats. Most important among them is perhaps that of a member of the Guild of the Golden Star, the Zunft zum goldenen Stern, active since 1398 as the brotherhood of barber-surgeons in the city and canton of Basel. He also has sat since 2014 as member for Gross-Basel Ost in the Grand Council of the city and canton of Basel, representing the Liberal Democratic Party there. (I've visited the party's website: They seem decent sorts, if to my tastes "liberal" misrepresents their stances... but any published political programme has as its central principle, of course, only Pro bono, contra malum.) Finally, in accord with the Milizprinzip of Swiss direct participatory democracy and very much as a side-job, he is head of paediatric gastroenterology and paediatrician-in-chief at the University Hospital of Basel.
For consideration today, Prof Furlano proposes three articles on aspects of endoscopy to address foreign-body ingestion: Thomson M et al., "Paediatric gastrointestinal endoscopy: European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition and European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guidelines"; Tringali A et al., "Pediatric gastrointestinal endoscopy: European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) guideline executive summary"; and Mubarak A et al., "Diagnosis, management, and prevention of button battery ingestion in childhood: A European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition position paper."
Before the listeners pause the podcast to dig out the original articles and to read along, what is the difference between the first two articles? They were published simultaneously in 2017, their author lists are largely the same: Why both of these two?
These two articles include recommendations for dealing with ingestion of a variety of foreign bodies, whilst the third, from 2021, addresses only button-battery ingestion. Scuttlebutt has it that ESPGHAN has commissioned an assessment of endoscopy in foreign-body ingestion. Well, at this point listeners don't have access to a publication of the findings of that assessment. What is Prof Furlano in a position to say about those findings and about how the stances taken by ESPGHAN differ from those in the articles that he has set before us? (A quick note, listeners: Bibliographic information on the three articles is included in the précis of this podcast that can be found on the ESPGHAN website.)
With that, it's off to the races! Foreign-body ingestion: What, where, how, and when! And maybe, as lagniappe, more about Swiss politics and guild Carnival parades..
Prof Furlano´s favourite song: Andrea" – Fabrizio De André
ESPGHAN favourite Songs can be found on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YIHKjxITLEm9XNyHyypTo
Literature
Mubarak A et al. Diagnosis, management, and prevention of button battery ingestion in childhood: A European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition position paper. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2021 Jul 1;73(1):129–136. doi:10.1097/MPG.0000000000003048. PMID: 33555169.
Thomson M et al. Paediatric gastrointestinal endoscopy: European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition and European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guidelines. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2017 Jan;64(1):133–153. doi:10.1097/MPG.0000000000001408. PMID: 27622898.
Tringali A et al. Pediatric gastrointestinal endoscopy: European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) guideline executive summary.Endoscopy. 2017 Jan;49(1):83–91. doi:10.1055/s-0042-111002. Epub 2016 Sep 12. PMID: 27617420.