Volume 65, Issue 5 pp. 496-499
Original Article: Gastroenterology

Safe Energy Source in Battery-operated Toys for Children

Alfredo Rossi

Alfredo Rossi

National Society of Maritime Rescue

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Silvia Vignola

Corresponding Author

Silvia Vignola

G. Gaslini Institute, Gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy, Genoa

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Silvia Vignola, G. Gaslini Institute, Gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy, Largo G. Gaslini 5, 16147 Genoa, Italy (e-mail: [email protected]).Search for more papers by this author
Francesca Nason

Francesca Nason

BlueThink SpA

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Federica Boschetti

Federica Boschetti

Politecnico di Milano, Laboratory of Biological Structure Mechanics

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Manuela Bramerio

Manuela Bramerio

Anatomy and Histology Department, Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda, Milan, Italy

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Alessandro Bailini

Alessandro Bailini

BlueThink SpA

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Giordano Pinarello

Giordano Pinarello

BlueThink SpA

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First published: 01 November 2017
Citations: 3

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text, and links to the digital files are provided in the HTML text of this article on the journal's Web site (www.jpgn.org).

ABSTRACT

Objectives:

Serious and even fatal consequences of disk batteries ingestion in children are well known. Among other applications, disk batteries are used to power small toys, from which they can be unexpectedly extracted and swallowed.

Methods:

We tested a new cell intended for little toys (green cell [GC]), after 6 and 12 hours of in vitro close contact with esophageal swine mucosa. The GC was compared with lithium and silver button batteries under the same experimental conditions.

Results:

Tissues in contact with the GC did not show pH variations nor histological alterations after 6 and 12 hours. In such conditions, statistically significant differences were found between the GC and the lithium and silver batteries.

Conclusions:

So far, multidisciplinary medical effort has been driven to both emergency approach and subsequent operative strategies in children with ingested batteries. Our trial demonstrates the possibility to primarily prevent battery-induced damages by designing new-generation safe cells with no tissue toxicity to power little toys intended for children.

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