Paediatric poisonings treated in one Finnish main university hospital between 2002 and 2006

Acute poisonings are a major cause of morbidity among children. This study aims to describe the incidence and nature of emergency visits for acute paediatric poisoning among Finnish children.

All patients younger than 16 years admitted to the Tampere University Hospital's emergency department with a diagnosis of poisoning during 2002-2006 were identified from the Hospital Information System using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).

Altogether 369 emergency visits were diagnosed with poisoning, the overall incidence being 8.1 per 10 000 person-years (95% CI 7.3-9.0). A majority of patients were adolescents aged 10-15 years (48%) and children under 5 years (45%). Boys represented 55% of the cases. Nonpharmaceutical agents were suspected to be the cause in 60.4% and pharmaceuticals in 30.6% of the intoxications. Multiple agents were involved in 8.4% of the cases. Ethanol was the agent in 30.9% of the poisonings. Most patients (78.9%) were hospitalized (median length of stay 1 day). Overall mortality was 0.3%.

Acute paediatric poisonings represent a relatively frequent problem in Finland, and remain a life-threatening problem. The high proportion of alcohol poisonings highlights the necessity to develop more effective primary prevention programs.