Did a child swallow a battery? Don’t wait for it to pass naturally…

Doctors might want to be more aggressive about treating children who swallow a button battery and appear to be out of danger, a preliminary study suggests.

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The small, round batteries – found in everything from watches to remote controls to toys – have become an increasingly common cause of young children’s trips to the emergency room.

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Whenever a child swallows a battery – or might have swallowed one – parents should get to the hospital right away.

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The biggest worry is a battery stuck in the oesophagus, according to Khalaf, a paediatric gastroenterologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora.

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When that happens, the battery can quickly burn through the tissue there and cause serious, or even fatal, damage. So doctors act right away, threading an endoscope down into the throat to remove the battery.

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The situation is different if X-rays show the battery has moved into the stomach. If it’s not causing symptoms, guidelines say doctors can wait to see if the child passes it naturally.

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But in the latest study, Khalaf’s team found that even in symptom-free children, button batteries that make it into the stomach can damage the lining there. That suggests doctors should consider removing them in those cases, too, the researchers said.