Risk Factors of Esophageal Bleeding in Children with Various Etiologies of Liver Cirrhosis – A Single-Center Report from Iran

Esophageal bleeding is a common complication in patients with liver cirrhosis. In thee present study, our aim was to divulge major factors predicting esophageal bleeding in Iranian children with liver cirrhosis. This was a cross-sectional study including 101 children < 18 years old referred to the Pediatric Endoscopy Unit of Nemazee Teaching Hospital of Shiraz from 2014 until 2016. Children with esophageal varices were included. The patients were divided into two groups including those with and without history of esophageal bleeding. Statistical methods were performed in SPSS 16 software. There were 49 boys and 52 girls. The mean age was 7.74±5.26 years old. A history of esophageal bleeding was observed in 53 (52.4%). In univariate analyses, significant relationships were found between esophageal bleeding and varices size (P=0.001), Child-Pugh score (P=0.01), age of bleeding initiation (P<0.001), serum creatinine (P=0.01), and serum sodium (P=0.002). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean of PELD/MELD score among children with (12.34±12) and without (14.61±17.51) history of esophageal bleeding (P=0.5). Among various etiologies of cirrhosis, a significant association was observed between autoimmune hepatitis and the history of esophageal bleeding (P=0.01). Regarding the clinical importance of esophageal bleedings in children with liver cirrhosis, it is recommended to further divulge the risk factors pre-disposing to this event.