Peroral Intestinal Biopsy in Children: A Technique

Abstract

Peroral small intestinal biopsy is an important diagnostic tool in cases of chronic diarrhea and steatorrhea. Biopsy tissue has also been used for enzyme assay to confirm the deficiency of disaccharidases as a cause of diarrhea.¹ A useful peroral biopsy technique for pediatric patients should combine safety, simplicity, ease of passage in infants and small children, minimal x-ray exposure, and efficiency in obtaining an adequate specimen. Because of the variation in duodenal mucosa in normal children,^2,3 the instrument should preferably reach the jejunum or fourth portion of the duodenum. In this report a technique for the passage of the Crosby intestinal biopsy capsule into the jejunum of infants and small children is described. Successful uncomplicated biopsies were performed on 48 occasions in 29 patients. Material and Methods The study group was composed of 32 children with chronic diarrhea of various etiologic types, including bacterial, parasitic, and tropical sprue.