Corrosive ingestion and the surgeon11No competing interests declared.

Although ingestion of corrosive substances is relatively rare, such events may have devastating effects on the upper gastrointestinal tract, present major problems in management, and consume considerable health resources. The low frequency of corrosive ingestion in developed countries means that individual clinicians have limited experience with managing these patients who may require care by emergency room physicians, gastroenterologists, and surgeons. This review aims to summarize current information about this injury, most of which is reported in subspecialty publications.