Assessment of the pattern and severity grading of acute poisoning in children admitted to Alexandria Poison Center

ABSTRACT

The present work aimed to study the pattern and severity grading of acute poisning among children. The study included all children less than 15 years [n=1072] who were admitted to Alexandria Poison Center [APC] at Alexandria Main University Hospital during six months period [Julyy - December 2000]. Children less than 5 years accounted for 62.8% of the total children where toddlers were the most vulnerable. Early adolescents 10 < 15 years constituted 26.1%, where grils significantly exceeded boys. Children with low and moderate socioeconomic levels represented 64.0% and 20.1% respectively. Accidental poisoning accounted for the majority of children [81.5%]; all of them were less than 5 years. Attempted suicide represented 17.9%, while overdose by addicting drugs constituted 0.6%, all were boys and 10 < 15 years. Non-drug poisoning represented 74.3%, while poisoning by drugs accounted for 17.5%. Carbon monoxide poisoning, animal poisons [snakes and scorpions] and plant poisoning constituted 6.7%, 1.2% and 0.3% respectively. Accordding to multicenter Study of Poisoning in Children [MSPC] score, the study revealed that children with score 0 [asymptomatic] represented 26.2%, those with scores 1 and 2 [mild and moderate] constituted 37.3% and 32.0% respectively, while scores 3 and 4 i.e. severe and very severe poisoning accounted for 3.9% and 0.7% respectively. It was noticed that the MSPC Severity Score goes hand in hand with Matthew and Lawson scale [M and L scale], where severe grades of coma by M and L scale i.e grades 3 and 4 have moderate, severe and very severe poisoning by MSPC Score