Corrosive Acid Injury

Patient should immediately be transferred to hospital for further treatment. Homemade remedy like milk or water to neutralise the effect of ingested liquid has not be found effective. In the contrarily, pH neutralisation of acid by alkali fluid or vice versa may be dangerous as it produces the heat after reaction with each other and that may increase the damage. Milk and activated charcoal should be avoided because may obscure proper vision during subsequent endoscopy.
If patient is able to swallow own saliva without any discomfort, oral feeding may gradually be started. Otherwise, feeding is started by putting a tube in stomach under guidance of endoscopy or surgery is done to put a feeding tube in small –intestine.
Most of patients with minor injury, recovers well. Some patients may develop difficulty in swallowing (narrowing of esophagus) or early satiety (small size stomach) or vomiting (narrowing of outlet of stomach). Endoscopy or Barium study is done to look for any site of blockage. Most of time, endoscopic treatment is successful by regular dilation of narrowing and patient can swallow his/her meal. Surgery is advised if narrowing persists despite multiple attempts of dilatation.