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

ABSTRACT

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.