Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. Nov 5, 2024; 15(6): 99097
Published online Nov 5, 2024. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v15.i6.99097
Predicting full-thickness necrosis in adult acute corrosive ingestion injuries in a sub-Saharan African setting
Matthias Frank Scriba, Eduard Jonas, Galya Eileen Chinnery
Matthias Frank Scriba, Eduard Jonas, Galya Eileen Chinnery, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Department of Surgery, Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, Western Cape, South Africa
Author contributions: Scriba MF was the guarantor and designed the study; Scriba MF and Chinnery G acquired and interpreted the data; Scriba MF did all statistical analyses; Scriba MF drafted the initial manuscript; Scriba MF, Chinnery GE and Jonas EG all critically revised the article for important intellectual content and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the University of Cape Town Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC REF: 347/2022).
Informed consent statement: Due to the retrospective nature of the data review from an approved registry, individual patient informed consent was waived for this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: The data can be obtained from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Matthias Frank Scriba, MBChB, MMed, Surgeon, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Department of Surgery, Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Observatory, Cape Town 7925, Western Cape, South Africa. matthias.scriba@gmail.com
Received: July 13, 2024
Revised: September 6, 2024
Accepted: September 14, 2024
Published online: November 5, 2024
Processing time: 103 Days and 12.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Management of acute adult corrosive injuries remains internationally under-reported, but specifically in sub-Saharan Africa. This large series of 100 patients highlights the high rates of morbidity and mortality, especially when full thickness necrosis is established. Predicting necrosis on admission is challenging, with international guidelines proposing computed tomography (CT) as the investigation of choice. With limited availability of CT, endoscopy still performs well in our setting. CT should be considered in patients with suspected severe corrosive injury with abnormal findings on blood gas (pH, base excess, and lactate) serving as accurate and practical markers of severity in a low-resource setting.