Martino A, Di Serafino M, Zito FP, Orsini L, Pietrini L, Menchise A, Cargiolli M, Anastasio L, Martino R, Bennato R, Lombardi G. Role of computed tomography in the assessment of caustic ingestion severity: A comprehensive review. World J Radiol 2025; 17(7): 109172 [DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i7.109172]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Alberto Martino, MD, Department of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, AORN “Antonio Cardarelli”, Via Antonio Cardarelli, 9, Napoli 80131, Italy. alberto.martino@aocardarelli.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Radiol. Jul 28, 2025; 17(7): 109172 Published online Jul 28, 2025. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i7.109172
Role of computed tomography in the assessment of caustic ingestion severity: A comprehensive review
Alberto Martino, Marco Di Serafino, Francesco Paolo Zito, Luigi Orsini, Lorena Pietrini, Antonella Menchise, Martina Cargiolli, Lorenzo Anastasio, Rossana Martino, Raffaele Bennato, Giovanni Lombardi
Alberto Martino, Francesco Paolo Zito, Luigi Orsini, Lorena Pietrini, Antonella Menchise, Martina Cargiolli, Lorenzo Anastasio, Rossana Martino, Raffaele Bennato, Giovanni Lombardi, Department of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, AORN “Antonio Cardarelli”, Napoli 80131, Italy
Marco Di Serafino, Department of General and Emergency Radiology, AORN “Antonio Cardarelli”, Napoli 80131, Italy
Author contributions: Martino A, Di Serafino M and Zito FP designed research and wrote, edited and finalized the text; Martino A, Di Serafino M, Zito FP, Orsini L, Pietrini L, Menchise A, Cargiolli M, Anastasio L, Martino R, and Bennato R performed literature search and analyzed the data; Lombardi G reviewed the paper for important intellectual content.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alberto Martino, MD, Department of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, AORN “Antonio Cardarelli”, Via Antonio Cardarelli, 9, Napoli 80131, Italy. alberto.martino@aocardarelli.it
Received: May 6, 2025 Revised: June 2, 2025 Accepted: July 17, 2025 Published online: July 28, 2025 Processing time: 85 Days and 16.6 Hours
Abstract
Caustic ingestion is a relatively rare but potentially catastrophic gastroenterological emergency. Upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is currently regarded as the gold standard modality not only to assess the depth and the extension of GI caustic injury, but also to guide the appropriate treatment. Intriguingly, contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) has recently emerged as a promising non-invasive and more accurate alternative to endoscopy in this setting. However, to date, evidence concerning the role of CECT as an alternative or complementary diagnostic tool to endoscopy in caustic ingestion is still limited. The aim of our review was to summarize and discuss the current evidence concerning the role of CECT in the emergency diagnosis of caustic ingestion and its value in assessing injury severity among non-pediatric patients.
Core Tip: Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy has traditionally been the mainstay for the severity assessment in caustic ingestion, driving proper treatment and dictating patient prognosis. However, contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) has emerged as a promising non-invasive alternative to endoscopy. Nevertheless, to date, evidence concerning the role of CECT in the diagnostic process of caustic ingestion is still limited. Our study aimed to review the current evidence concerning the role of CECT in the severity assessment of caustic ingestion.
