It's hard to sort this out without seeing all the code but at a guess I would first look at where you have this in the first script

hidden( -name => "item_id", -override => 1,
-default => escapeHTML( $ref->{item_id} )),
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and this is the secomd

hidden( -name => "item_id", -override => 1,
-default => escapeHTML( $item_id )),
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and in particular, check the scope of $item_id
poj