Aslam M, Boluch G R, Waqar Hussain, Akbar Malik, Aniqa Haider.
Accidental Poisoning in children.
Pak Paed J Jan ;26(2):67-70.

Objectives: Poisoning in children is an important health problem which has significant costs, both financial and emotional, as it is largely an accidental phenomenon. It is also a prime target for prevention and cost saving measures. Accidental poisoning is implicated in about 2% of all injury deaths in children in developed countries and about 5% in developing countries. In spite of these figures, the exact scale of the problem is difficult to ascertain as few, if any, countries have a mechanism for collecting information of all cases and data from different countries is often not comparable. Thus, in order to characterize poisoning in children, a composite picture must be built from a number of different sources, including poison center statistics, surveys of A&E department, hospital admissions, national mortality statistics and population based studies. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the magnitude and clinical presentation of acute poisoning in children. Setting: Accident and emergency departments of two teaching hospitals in Lahore. Methods: All children admitted to the emergency department with acute poisoning were included. Results: In one year, a total of 116 children including 67 boys and 49 females presented with acute poisoning. Maximum number of cases with poisoning were seen in the age group 1-5 years, among which drugs and household chemicals were responsible in majority of the cases. The most common systems involved were gastrointestinal, respiratory and nervous systems. Over the period 9 children died, 2 of them were poisoned by morphine, three had accidental ingestion of kerosene oil, two had history of ingestion of bathroom cleaner and 1 each, with insecticide and carbon mono oxide respectively. Conclusions and recommendation: We conclude that acute poisoning is of significant magnitude in our study and recommend the establishment of `Children`s Poisoning Center` for proper guidance, prevention and management of children with acute poisoning.

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