title: Barrett's esophagus in children: does it need more attention?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Few studies have reported on Barrett's esophagus (BE) in children. Moreover, information on the age at diagnosis and the duration between reflux-symptoms and diagnosis is lacking.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review of the literature was performed in PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fourteen articles were included, of which 4 cohort studies and 10 studies investigating patients already diagnosed with BE. The cohort studies showed 37 patients diagnosed with BE (0.3-4.8%), mean age 12.4 years. Time between onset of reflux-symptoms and BE was 2.8 years. All 14 studies together showed 176 patients with BE (mean age 9.5 years). Time between onset of reflux-symptoms and BE was 5.3 years. During endoscopic follow-up of 45 patients, 26 still had BE, 17 no longer had evidence of BE, and two had developed esophageal-adenocarcinoma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review shows that BE and esophageal-adenocarcinoma occur in children. However, criteria used to define BE by the included studies were not comparable to the current criteria and data on GERD symptoms may have been inaccurate. Therefore, we recommend performing a long-term prospective study on the relationship between (duration of) GERD and the development of BE in children in order to define screening guidelines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Wilhelmina Children's Hospital Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Suzanne M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Jeurnink
authors.forename: Maud Y A
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: van Herwaarden-Lindeboom
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Siersema
authors.forename: Kathelijn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: Roderick H J
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Houwen
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: van der Zee
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000150:complications*; D017668:Age of Onset; D001471:Barrett Esophagus / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D013997:Time Factors