Endoscopic small intestinal biopsy in infants and children: its usefulness in the diagnosis of celiac disease and other enteropathies.

Forty-seven endoscopic small intestinal biopsies were performed in children with chronic diarrhea and malabsorption and suspected celiac disease. The purpose of this study was to reach the distal duodenum or proximal jejunum with large channel panendoscopes in order to get adequate samples for histopathological diagnosis. Patients younger than 8 years of age were anesthetized with ketamine. Time required for the full procedure was less than 10 min in most cases. There were no failures or complications. In all 47 endoscopic examinations, histologically adequate specimens of small bowel mucosa were obtained. These results suggest that this is a safe, quick, and easy method to obtain high-quality samples for histopathological diagnosis of enteropathies.