Epidemiologic and clinical evaluation of the acute intoxication in pediatric patients

Abstract

Acute poisoning is a critical and emergent public health problem worldwide among pediatric age group. The common epidemiological observation is required to understand the characteristics of the pediatric intoxication for each location and important for management the poisoning cases. This retrospective study researched the epidemiology of poisoning among children. This study represented the epidemiology of poisonings of children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at Afyonkarahisar Health Science University Faculty of Medicine between February 2020 and May 2021. Fifty one pediatric patients were reffered to the PICU due to acute intoxication. 58.9% of the analyzed patients were male and 41.1% were female. The mean age of all patients was 8.57±7.6. The majority of cases were due to drug-related poisonings. The average age of cases of suicidal poisoning was higher than accidental intoxication cases. Paracetamol was the most prevalent cause of drug-related intoxication and more common in children under 5 years of age and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were more frequent in adolescent group. All patients survived. Almost all of the patients were discharged from hospital within 3 days. Poisonings are still a serious reason for morbidity and mortality in developing countries among children. Early awareness of poisoning and appropriate management appeared to be effective and to decrease the mortality rate.