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.