Foreign-body Ingestions in Children During COVID-19 Pandemic in a Pediatric Referral Center

Pizzol, Antonio; Rigazio, Caterina; Calvo, Pier Luigi; Scottoni, Federico; Pane, Alessandro; Gennari, Fabrizio; Cisarò, Fabio

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.