Iatrogenic upper gastrointestinal (GI) injuries are rare occurrences with predisposition in premature births, low birth weight, multiple attempts at OGT placement. Medical literature on the topic consists of case reports and mostly has been from the perspective of management with very limited literature on diagnostic evaluation. As the clinical presentation of such iatrogenic injuries is nonspecific, the radiographic appearance may be the only clue for diagnosis and the typical findings should be recognized and diagnosed by radiologists and neonatologists. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the radiographic findings and a diagnostic approach to guide the radiologist. A retrospective case-review was performed from 2009-2017, of neonates with upper GI injuries associated with naso/orogastric tube placement or with pharyngeal auctioning at birth ( a single case). Seven cases were found comprising of five females and two males. Six of seven neonates were premature with gestational ages ranging from 24 weeks and 2 days to 28 weeks, and birth weights spanning 515-1085 grams. The 38 week neonate weiged 3500 grams. We report three types of injury: 1) posterior pharyngeal rupture, 2) non-complicated esophageal rupture with formation of a false lumen, 3) complicated esophageal rupture with penetration into the right pleural space. Management has evolved over time from a primarily surgically oriented approach to a more conservative approach involving TPN and antibiotics. Read More

Meeting name: SPR 2018 Annual Meeting & Postgraduate Course , 2018

Authors: Wolf Joel, Remon Juan, Myers Eliza, Blumfield Einat

Keywords: iatrogenic injury, neonatal upper gi rupture