[Intestinal biopsy in childhood].

The current policy in this department is to utilize small intestinal biopsy early in the course of investigation of children with suspected malabsorption (Townley, 1971). Also, we have not been unduly hesitant to perform intestinal biopsy in research studies, after the procedure and its risks have been explained to parents (Barnes and Townley, 1973). Others have raised doubts about the safety (Partin and Schubert, 1966; Sheldon and Tempany, 1966) and the ethical aspects of intestinal biopsy in childhood, and we are glad to justify our current policy. We here report our experience with intestinal biopsy in 1172 children carried out in the 4-year period 1968-72, and also describe the technique we use.