Evaluation of poisoning cases admitted to the pediatric emergency clinic retrospectively

Abstract

We aimed to analyze the demographic and epidemiologic features of the acute poisoning cases admitted to the pediatric emergency department. We evaluated 439 cases aged 18 and under applied to Ondokuz Mayıs University Medical Faculty Pediatric Emergency Department between 01/01/2019 and 01/01/2020 retrospectively. The mean age of patients was 7.5±6.39 years.242(55.1%) patients were female. Intoxications were most common in winter season (36.4%) and most seen with caustic corrosive substances. Of the poisoning agents, 35.5% (n:156) were nonpharmacologic and 57.4% (n:252) were pharmacologic agents. In poisonings with pharmacological agents, central nervous system drugs were the most common, while caustic-corrosive substances were most common in nonpharmacological poisonings. While caustic corrosive substances are in the first place in poisonings between the ages of 0-5 (47.4%), in the 5-11 age group; carbon monoxide (25%) and in the 11-18 age group; multiple drug poisonings (15%) were most common observed. Naphthalene intoxication was seen in 4.8% and alcohol was in 4.5%, higher than the literature. In our study, it was observed that alcohol use was high among young people in our region. Also, it is observed that naphthalene poisoning was in high rate. We believe that this study will guide the measures to be taken.