Abstract
Introduction: Acute poisonings are one of the common cause of emergency visits and hospital admissions and is potentially preventable cause of childhood mortality and morbidity. The objectives of this study were to identify the common type of poisoning in children, to determine types of poisoning according to age and to find out the common age group in which the incidence of poisoning was high.Materials and Methods: It was a descriptive observational study done in a teaching hospital in Lalitpur, Nepal in patients aged 1 month to 18 years who visited the emergency department and were admitted to hospital with history of alleged poisoning from 2009 July to 2014 January.Results: Fifty patients were included. Drugs, kerosene and organophosphorus were most common cause of poisoning. Drugs and kerosene below 10 years of age and organophosphorus and drugs above 10 years of age were common types of poisoning. Maximum numbers (50%) of children with poisoning cases were below five year of age. Mean duration of hospital stay was 2.1days and mean age of poisoning was 7.8 years with a male(54%) predominance. Majority of poisoning occurred at home (84%) and 68% of patients were symptomatic at presentation to hospital with 84% of patients presenting to hospital within six hours.Conclusion: This study showed that drugs, kerosene and organophosphorus were most common forms of poisoning. Young children were most vulnerable for acute poisoning.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jnps.v34i2.10139J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2014;34(2):100-103
Highlights
Acute poisoning is one of the common cause of emergency visits and hospital admissions and is a potentially preventable cause of childhood mortality and morbidity
Acute poisoning is an important cause of emergency department visits and hospital admission in children[1] and it is one of the poten ally preventable causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in Nepal[1,2]
Drugs are available from drug stores without prescrip ons while insec cides and pes cides are widely used in agriculture but inappropriately stored
Summary
Acute poisoning is one of the common cause of emergency visits and hospital admissions and is a potentially preventable cause of childhood mortality and morbidity. Kerosene and organophosphorus were most common cause of poisoning. Conclusion: This study showed that drugs, kerosene and organophosphorus were most common forms of poisoning. Acute poisoning is an important cause of emergency department visits and hospital admission in children[1] and it is one of the poten ally preventable causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in Nepal[1,2]. In Nepal, poisoning is common in an most household due to ignorance and carelessness of parents while storing poten ally hazardous substances such as drugs, alcohol, hydrocarbons, roden cides and insec cides. The pa ern of poisoning, may differ with insec cides and pes cides mostly occurring in rural farming regions and with most of drug poisoning occurring in urban area
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
