Accidental poisoning its magnitude and implications in children

Abstract

Background: Paucity of data due to underreporting of accidental poisoning (AP) poses obstacle in assessing the trend, incidence, and mortality in pediatric population. Objective: Estimating the magnitude and assessing the pattern of AP in children was the primary objective. Describing the affected age group, common agents, and assessment of clinical features were the secondary objectives. Materials & Methods: Children aged 1month-12years with history of AP were included; those with allergic reactions to plant products, food and idiosyncratic reactions to drugs were excluded. Result: 101 children accounted for 1.7% of total pediatric admission. Accidental ingestion of poisons (90.09%) and poisoning due to insect and snake bites (9.90%) were reported. Males (n=62) outnumbered females. Patients from urban area (68.2 %), children aged1-3 years (56.43%) wereaffected the most. All incidents were unintentional and occured in the home surroundings. April (n=21), March (n=20) recorded higher number followed by December (n=14). Hydrocarbon poisoning (43.56%) was most common followed by poisoning due to medicaments (18.8 %,), chemicals (12.87%), and food poisoning (9.90%). Insect bites & stings were seen in 9.90%. Supportive treatment was given to 49.5%, further gastric absorption prevented in 24.45 % and specific antidote to 7.9% patients.Three patients died due to scorpion bite, Phenytoin and kerosene ingestion. Conclusion: AP is a preventable emergency. Incidence, agents, clinical features, treatment administered and therapeutic outcome of AP in children are comparable to the available national data. Preventive measures, strict legislative actions and restriction of availability of hazardous chemicals will reduce the incidence.