THE POTENTIAL SEVERE COMPLICATIONS OF GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX - A CASE REPORT AND A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) represents the involuntary passage of the gastric contents into the esophagus and is one of the most common symptoms in both children and adults. The symptoms vary very much and the severe complications are rather uncommon in children nowadays due to a widely available treatment. We present the case a 12-year-old male patient, admitted in our clinic for morning vomiting after meals, with abundant mucus, dysphagia for solid food, epigastric pain, food refusal, nocturnal agitation associated with sleep disorders for approximately 1 month, and weight loss (2-3 kg in the last 6 months), whose personal history revealed multiple acute upper airways infections during the first year of life and gastroesophageal reflux diagnosed approximately at the age of 1 year, which improved without treatment until the age of 3 years. The esophagogastroduodenoscopy and barium transit exam established the diagnosis of esophageal stenosis and gastroesophageal reflux with favorable evolution after a prolonged treatment with proton pump inhibitors. The particularity of the case consists in diagnosing a peptic esophageal stenosis in a 12-year-old child, with onset of symptoms approximately 1 month ago, whose personal history revealed multiple acute upper airways infections during the first year of life and gastroesophageal reflux at 1 year of age which apparently solved without treatment until the age of 3 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]