Study of clinical profile and outcome of poisoning in children admitted to a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: A poison is any substance that causes harm to a living being. Children are curious and explore their world with all their senses. Every year thousands of children are admitted to emergency department with poisoning. Poisoning pattern changes according to age group, the nature, dose of the poison, type of exposure. This study is aimed at understanding the incidence, aetiology, manner of poisoning and outcome among children less than 18 years of age admitted to Paediatric emergency department. Methods: This is a Prospective observational study conducted in Paediatrics, MMC and RI, Mysore (Cheluvaba Hospital) between January 2019 to June 2019. After taking ethical committee clearance. 142 children with poisoning admitted to emergency department were included in this study. The age and sex of the patient, poisoning agent, manner of poisoning, duration of hospital stay and outcome of all the patients were recorded and analysed. Results: Out of 142, 78 (54.9%) cases are males, 64 (45.1%) cases are females. 91 (64.1%) cases are <5 years of age, 17 (12%) cases are between 5-10 year, 34 (23.9%) cases are above 10 years. Among all, 38 (26%) cases of drugs consumption. 65 (45.8%) cases of kerosene consumption. 21 (14.8%) cases of insecticides and pesticides poison. Unknown compound 18 (12.7%) cases. 4 (2.8%) cases died- aluminium phosphide poisoning 3 (75%) and Organophosphorous poison 1 (25%). Duration of hospital stay varied from 1 day to more than 15 days. Conclusions: Accidental poisoning is common in children below 5 years of age. Suicidal poisoning incidence is increasing among teenagers either due to exam stress or peer pressure. Accidental poisoning can be reduced by simple measures like parental education, replacing the poisoning agent with one of lower toxicity, legislation regarding the child resistant packaging of necessary poisons.