Clinical profile and outcome of children presenting with poisoning or intoxication: a hospital-based study

Abstract

Background: Poisoning is a common preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Most of the poisoning in children less than 5 years of age is accidental. Not much of Indian data is available particularly from this part of the country. So, authors conducted a retrospective hospital record-based study to know clinical profile and outcome of children presenting with poisoning in our set up. The objective was to study clinical profile, outcome of childhood poisoning and intoxication in Jammu District (Jammu and Kashmir) IndiaMethods: This was a retrospective hospital record-based study done in patients who were admitted in pediatric wards and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of SMGS Hospital Jammu with history of ingestion of poison or intoxication or envenomation from January 2017 to December 2017. The data collected was analyzed with SPSS 12.0 software. Demographic and etiological factors were retrospectively recorded and analyzed.Results: There were 227 children enrolled in study with an incidence of 0.99%. Male: female ratio was 1.2:1. Most of the children were asymptomatic and majority of them arrived to the hospital in less than 2 h. The majority of our patients 115 (50.66%) were in the 13-18 years age group. Organophosphorus poisoning was the commonest poisoning seen in 51 (57.30%) patients followed by snake bite 29 (55.77%), insect bite 17 (32.69%), Phenol 14 (77.78%), kerosene 11 (12.36%) and rat poison 10 (11.23%). Alcohol problem occurred in 9 (24.32%) cases. The most frequent cause of suicide attempt were school problems, followed by conflict in the family. Route of poisoning was ingestion in 173 (76.21%) cases followed by bites 53 (23.35%) and inhalation in 1 (0.44%) case. Vomiting 105 (46.25%) was the predominant clinical feature. Aspiration pneumonia 17 (43.59%) followed by respiratory failure 7 (17.95%) were the most common complications. During treatment 67 (27.91%) received gastric lavage and 28 (12.33%) received antidotes. Overall survival was 210 (92.51%), among remaining cases 2 (0.88%) cases died in hospital and 15 (6.61%) cases left against medical adviceConclusions: Parental health education will decrease the occurrence of childhood poisoning. Along with the parents and teachers, media also should take active steps to educate the rural population about the preventive measures from bite, stings and handling of poisonous agents.

Evaluation of cases of kerosene poisoning: A 3-year prospective study at Menoufia University Hospitals

“…In the present study, males outnumbered females. Male dominance could be due to more aggressive and exploratory nature and their greater degree of activity (Qazi and Saqib, 2018). Other studies showed similar age and gender predominance were reported by Al-Naddawi et al, (2009) in Iraq, Anwar et al, (2014) in Bangladesh, Kumaravel and Rameshbabu (2016) in India, and by Singh and Gurung, (2018) in Pakistan.…”

“…The present work highlighted that 22.1% were discharged against medical advice (DAMA) after taking the consent of their legal guardian. Qazi and Saqib, (2018) demonstrated that some of kerosene poisoning cases left the hospital against medical advice as they consumed small quantities and were admitted for observation.…”

A study about clinic-epidemiological pattern of acute poisoning in pediatric age group

“…8,10,15 Quazi et al reported that 13 to 18 years was commoner age for poisoning and mostly intentional. 16 It is already reported in literatures that below 5 year of age children are prone to accidental poisoning due to their curious nature, habit of mouthing and innocence. In all studies, below 5 years of age accidental poisoning was most common presentation as reported in this study.…”

study of clinical profile and outcome of poisoning among pediatric population in a tertiary care hospital

“…It demonstrates that kerosene is the most frequent domestic fuel used by lower middle-class households, and that because it is kept in bottles on the kitchen floor, children readily drink the bottles as water or play with them out of curiosity. Other research from Moradabad performed by Ravi Gangal et al 19 and Mahvish Qazi et al 20 , revealed insecticides and pesticides to be the most often ingested material, while another study conducted in Pakistan 21 found pharmaceuticals to be the most prevalent poisoning agent. Mineral spirit or paint thinner, which is commonly used with paints for painting homes, is the second most common agent involved.…”