Background. Caustic ingestion in pediatrics is a common cause of visits to the Emergency Department. An indiscriminate use of cleaning chemicals and an easy access to them are determining factors for these injuries. Population and methods. Descriptive, analytical study. Children aged < 16 years hospitalized between January 1998 and December 2017 were included. The ingested caustic substance was identified as acid or alkaline. A gastrointestinal endoscopy was done to establish the burn grade. The grade of the burn was compared to the type of caustic substance using the χ² test or the Fisher's exact test; a P value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results. A total of 133 children were admitted to the Emergency Department due to caustic ingestion. The caustic agent was acid in 41 % of cases and alkaline, in 59 %. The most common acid caustic substance was muriatic acid (36.8 %) and the most common alkaline caustic agent was caustic soda (41.4 %). An esophageal burn was the most common consequence of caustic soda ingestion compared to other caustic agents (p = 0.001), whereas muriatic acid ingestion was the most statistically significant cause of stomach burn (p = 0.001) and duodenal burn (p = 0.002). The age group that most commonly ingested some caustic agent (93.2 %) corresponded to children younger than 5 years. Conclusions. The most common type of ingested caustic agent was alkaline, which caused esophageal burn; whereas, the ingestion of an acid caustic substance caused stomach and duodenal burns, as evidenced by endoscopy.

Background. Allgrove Syndrome is a very rare genetic disease, which is inherited in an autosomal recessive way. The responsible gene is the AAAS, that encodes the protein ALADIN. It occurs most often in children of consanguineous parents. It is characterized by the classic triad of achalasia, alacrima, and adrenal insufficiency due to resistance to ACTH; the presence of two of the three previous manifestation events are required to establish the diagnosis. There is also a high frequency of the neurologic symptoms. Objective. Describe the clinical characteristics, age of presentation and evolution in 11 patients with Allgrove Syndrome. Methods. 11 clinical cases compatible with Allgrove Syndrome of presentation in childhood are retrospectively reviewed. Results. The average age at diagnosis was 5.9 years (range 1-16 years old). There was a predominance of the female sex (n = 7). The most common symptoms were postprandial vomiting and alacrima, present in 100% of the cases at the time of diagnosis. Adrenal insufficiency was not common; it was only documented in one patient. There was consanguinity between parents in 62.5% of the cases. Conclusions. Allgrove Syndrome is an uncommon cause of dysphagia, chronic vomiting and failure to grow in children. In case of any documented case of achalasia it is suggested to question in a directed way the presence of alacrima and adrenal insufficiency data such as seizures, hyperpigmentation of the skin and neurological alterations.