Prospective study of clinical profile and outcome of children presenting with poisoning

Background: Childhood poisoning covers the entire gamut from accidental ingestion in toddlers and preschool children to intentional overdosage in adolescents. To find the clinic- epidemiological profile of poisoning regarding age, sex, type of poison, manner of poisoning, common clinical features, duration between poisoning and presentation to hospital, duration of hospital stay, to find out the different agents involved duration of ICU stay, pre-referral treatment and treatment given.Methods: All children below 12 years of age admitted during the one-year study period with a history of poisoning were included. Animal bites, snake and scorpion envenomation, chronic poisoning, drug allergy was excluded. All children were examined, investigated and treated according to hospital policy. The outcome of poisoning was recorded.Results: There were 143 cases of children with poisoning admitted. Accidental poisoning constituted 88.1% cases (n126),7.7% (n11) was suicidal and the remaining 4.2%(n6) was homicidal. In most cases, poisoning was due to hydrocarbons followed by pesticides. kerosene oil was the most common substance followed by OPC.Conclusions: The highest incidence of poisoning was observed in children below 5 years of age and from the lower middle socio-economic group. Most of the poisons were household products and the most common nature of exposure was accidental in most of the cases, recovery was complete.

Pattern and Outcome of Acute Poisoning Cases in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Eastern Nepal

Introduction: The global problem of acute poisoning hasconstantly increased over the last few years. It is a majorcause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries.Appropriate preventive and management strategies can bedeveloped if the incidence and pattern of acute poisoningis known. This study aimed to determine the profile andoutcomes of acute poisoning patients admited to the hospitalthrough emergency department of a tertiary care hospital.Material and Methods: A hospital based retrospective studywas performed in the patients admitted to tertiary hospital withthe history of poisoning for the period of one year. Severalparameters were analyzed and compared with other studies.Results: Seventy-nine patients were presented with acutepoisoning during our study period. The age of the patientvaried from 11 to 63 years. The mean age was 27.76±15.5%.Females (53.2%) were dominant over males (46.8%). Patientsaged between 21 to 30 years were the most common age groupinvolved with poisoning. Subjects were most commonlyaffected by organophosphorous poisoning followed bychemical poisoning.Conclusion: Poisoning by agents like drugs (pesticides) andorganophosphorus compounds are alarming situation andthese occur mostly during adolescent period. Governmentregulations, educational awareness and poison informationcentres will help to decrease the growth of this public healthproblem

Epidemiology of paediatric poisoning presenting to a children's emergency department in Singapore over a five-year period

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>Paediatric poisoning accounts for 1% of daily emergency department presentations. The aim of this study was to review the characteristics and outcomes of paediatric patients who presented with drug overdose over a five-year period.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We performed a retrospective review of paediatric poisoning cases at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), the largest children's public hospital in Singapore, from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2013.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 1,208 cases of poisoning were seen in KKH's Department of Children's Emergency during the study period. The gender distribution was about equal, with a slight male predominance. The majority of the poisoning cases were accidental. Slightly more than half of the intentional ingestions were of paracetamol and the majority were female patients belonging to the 12-16 year age group. The bulk of poisonings occurred in children aged 1-4 via the oral route, slightly more than half of the oral ingestions consisted of oral medications and a sizeable portion were of household liquids. Mothballs and silica gels accounted for almost a quarter of the solid household products ingested. Slightly less than half of the patients required admission and only a small portion of the admitted patients required intensive or high dependency care.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prognosis of paediatric patients who presented with poisoning in our study was good, with a short median length of stay for those admitted and no fatalities being reported across the span of five years.</p>

Clinical Profile and Outcome of Acute Poisoning in Children Less than 12 years of Age

Background: Poisoning among children is one of the common medical emergencies encountered in Pediatric practice. Rapid industrialization and exposure to harmful chemicals, introduction of newer range of drugs have widened the spectrum of toxic products to which children are exposed. Objectives: To study clinical course, hospital stay and recovery in childhood poisonings, to assess clinical recovery in correlation with hematological, biochemical and radiological changes, to study various complications and mortality in childhood poisoning. Materials and methods: A prospective observational study was conducted and all patients of childhood poisoning under the age of 12 years and meeting the selection criteria admitted in the tertiary health care center in Saurashtra region were included. Results: Maximum incidence of childhood poisoning was between 1-5 years of age (63%) and 56 % were males. Commonest route of exposure was ingestion (53 %) followed by percutaneous route (38%). Among the poisoning agents, envenomation (39%) and kerosene (24%) were the most common. Vomiting (39%) was the predominant clinical feature. Respiratory failure (22%) and pneumonia (22%) were the most common complications. 3 % needed ventilator care. In the present study, the case fatality was 3%. Conclusion: The trends for childhood poisoning noted at our center were different from previous hospital-based studies in two important ways such as in the nature of the poisoning agents used and the higher incidence of accidental poisoning.