A Review of Button Battery Ingestions in Children—Diagnosis and Management

The production and use of button batteries (BBs) has gradually increased over the decades and has become commonplace in today’s world. As more household products have been using this type of battery, ingestions of these objects continue to rise. Over 83,000 battery ingestions in children were reported by the National Poison Data System between the years of 1985 and 2017. Over 77% of these were children less than 6 years of age. Between 1999 and 2019, the United States National Poison Data System reported a 66.7% increase in yearly ingestion of button batteries (6.98 to 10.46 per million population) and a 10-fold increase in complications. In this article, we review the epidemiology, mechanism of injuries to the esophagus and surrounding structures, complications detected with imaging, and management of button battery ingestions in the pediatric age group.