Review article DOI: 10.3345/kjp.2010.53.9.817 Korean J Pediatr 2010;53(9):817-823 General considerations and updates in pediatric gastrointestinal diagnostic endoscopy Yong Joo Kim, M.D. Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea Received: 23 July 2010, Accepted: 23 August 2010 Corresponding author: Yong Joo Kim, M.D. Department of Pediatrics, Hanyang University Hospital, 17 Haengdang-dong, Sungdong-gu, Seoul 133-792, Korea Tel: +82.2-2290-8390, Fax: +82.2-2297-2380 E-mail: kyjoo@hanyang.ac.kr Copyright © 2010 by The Korean Pediatric Society Gastrointestinal and colonic endoscopic examinations have been performed in pediatric patients in Korea for 3 decades. Endoscopic procedures are complex and may be unsafe if special concerns are not considered. Many things have to be kept in mind before, during, and after the procedure. Gastrointestinal endoscopy is one of the most frequently performed procedure in children nowadays, Since the dimension size of the endoscopy was modified for pediatric patients 15 years ago, endoscopic procedures are almost performed routinely in pediatric gastrointestinal patients. The smaller size of the scope let the physicians approach the diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic procedures. But this is an invasive procedure, so the procedure itself may provoke an emergence state. The procedure- related complications can more easily occur in pediatric patients. Sedation-related or procedure-related respiratory, cardiovascular complications are mostly important and critical in the care. The endoscopists are required to consider diverse aspects of the procedure – patient preparation, indications and contraindications, infection controls, sedation methods, sedative medicines and the side effects of each medicine, monitoring during and after the procedure, and complications related with the procedure and medicines – to perform the procedure successfully and safely. This article presents some important guidelines and recommendations for gastrointestinal endoscopy through literature review. Key words: Pediatric, Gastrointestinal endoscopy, Child This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction The gastrointestinal endoscopies in pediatric patients are commonly performed in the tertiary referral medical institutes in Korea. Observation for the guidelines is very important as much as the skill of the physicians. Guidelines for trainees to ensure competence have been issued by the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in 19991). The endoscopists are required to follow the recommendations of the endoscopic procedures. The physicians need to understand patient preparation, indications and contraindications, infection controls, sedation methods, sedative medicines and the side effects 817