[The use of paracetamol in children--not just a drug but also a poison]. / Paracetamol u detí--nejen lék, ale i jed.

Acetaminophen is the most widely used analgesic drug in pediatrics. It is also the most frequently ingested drug in overdoses. The incidence of paracetamol poisoning has increased and it is accompanied with high morbidity and mortality. The use, abuse and ways of reducing paracetamol toxicity are reviewed. A case report of lethal acetaminophen intoxication in 2-year-old child is described. Authors draw attention to the health care providers--they should consider acetaminophen toxicity in all cases when the child has signs of acute hepatic dysfunction.

Critical and severe burn injury in children.

The authors present a data file of 279 children with severe and critical burn injury, hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit or the Pediatric Resuscitation Unit of the FNsP Hospital in Ostrava in the years 1999 - 2003. The severity of the burn trauma in children is determined by age, extent, depth, localization, circumstances of the injury, its mechanism, and by other serious illnesses of a child. The authors have divided the data file into two groups, severe and critical, using classification of a burn injury in children according to the extent of injury as well as localization and other circumstances (1). Complex therapy of extensive burn injuries in children is based on adequate fluid resuscitation, treatment of burned areas, algosedation, and appropriate antibiotic therapy. The authors have unequivocally confirmed that in the group of children with diagnosis of critical burns complications occur more often, while the overall course of illness is serious and requires more therapeutical interventions than in the group of children with severe burns.