Short article: Buried bumper syndrome in children: incidence and risk factors.

OBJECTIVE: Buried bumper syndrome (BBS) is a serious complication in gastrostomy-dependent children. Many need surgical correction. On account of comorbidities, this becomes a high-risk procedure. Our aim was to review the incidence of BBS in children and to identify the risk factors.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective review of patients' records over 10 years, 2006-2015, was carried out. Types of tubes, operative interventions, comorbidities and records were noted. Two-tailed Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 535 patients were reviewed. Overall, 475 had only percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) and 60 had a jejunal extension with percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG-J). Twenty-nine patients (PEG-J - 16/26; PEG - 13/26) had a total of 31 BBS episodes. The overall incidence of BBS in our study was 5.4%. The age at presentation ranged from 1 to 18 years (median 8.6 years). All had significant comorbidities (neurodevelopmental 26/29, cardiorespiratory 14/29, genetic 16/29). Overall, 27/29 had two or more comorbidities. The mean time to development of BBS was 1025±634 days. BBS was found in the second or the subsequent tube in four patients with PEGs (P<0.0004) and in 10 PEG-Js (P<0.0001). Twenty-five patients needed laparotomy. There were no postoperative deaths.

CONCLUSION: In BBS, the two significant risk factors identified were a having PEG-J and two or more previous gastrostomy insertions. Vigilance in documentation and prolonged follow-up to provide regular education to carers can reduce the incidence of this preventable complication.