Clinical features and long-term outcomes in pediatric cyclic vomiting syndrome: A 9-year experience at three tertiary academic centers

Background: Pediatric cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) is a little-known clinical condition, frequently diagnosed with delay. This study aims to describe the clinical presentation and management and to define possible predictive factors of the disease outcome. Methods: In this retrospective study, all children who were diagnosed with CVS during the period 2010–2019 in three tertiary academic centers were included. The association between clinical variables and outcomes was investigated. Key Results: Fifty-seven children were included (male/female ratio 1.3:1; mean age at diagnosis 8.2 years). At the time of diagnosis, 63% of children had at least one episode every month. One or more prodromes were reported by 75% of patients. Family history of migraine was reported for 47% of children. Nearly, all of the children were started on prophylactic treatment. The median follow-up period was 29 months ± 15. Overall, 56% of children had resolution of vomiting. Twenty-six percent of children developed migraine. There were no differences in gender, age at onset, duration of follow-up, severity, medication, family history, or trigger factors between children who underwent resolution of vomiting and those who did not, or between children who suffered from migraine or not at follow-up. Four types of disease outcome were recognized, that is, resolution of vomiting with or without associated symptoms; persistence of vomiting with or without associated symptoms. Conclusions and Inferences: Cyclic vomiting syndrome clinical presentation has inter-individual variability. Most children recover at follow-up, but often develop further somatic symptoms. In this study, no clinical variable clearly predicted the evolution of the syndrome toward one or the other outcome.