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REVIEW article

Front. Pediatr.

Sec. Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1681649

This article is part of the Research TopicPediatric Gastroenterology And Visualizing The Digestive TractView all 6 articles

The Role of Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy in Pediatric Gastrointestinal Diseases: A Narrative Review

Provisionally accepted
Irene DalpiazIrene Dalpiaz1Luca ScaralloLuca Scarallo1,2Marco AndreiniMarco Andreini1Sara RenzoSara Renzo1Giusy RussoGiusy Russo3Cosimo RuggieroCosimo Ruggiero3Danila VolpeDanila Volpe3Paolo LionettiPaolo Lionetti1,2Salvatore OlivaSalvatore Oliva3*
  • 1Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit, Meyer Children’s Hospital IRCCS, Florence, Italy
  • 2Department NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
  • 3Pediatric Gastroenterology and Liver Unit, Department of Maternal Infantile and Urological Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

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Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) is an innovative tool that enables microscopic evaluation of the gastrointestinal mucosa during the digestive endoscopy, providing real-time diagnostic information alongside histopathological findings. CLE has a broad range of applications in adult gastrointestinal diseases, spanning from the upper digestive tract to the lower digestive tract and encompassing both oncologic and benign conditions, as well as functional diseases. However, its use remains largely confined to experimental setting. Despite the extensive potential of CLE, its application in pediatric patients has been poorly investigated. This narrative review aims to consolidate the current knowledge on CLE in gastrointestinal diseases and to draw insights from adult studies to promote future research in the pediatric field.

Keywords: Confocal laser endomicroscopy, pediatric gastrointestinal diseases, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, food allergy, functional gastrointestinal disorders

Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Dalpiaz, Scarallo, Andreini, Renzo, Russo, Ruggiero, Volpe, Lionetti and Oliva. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Salvatore Oliva, salvatore.oliva@uniroma1.it

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material