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Acute intoxications among Turkish children
Baran S Kizilyildiz1, Kamuran Karaman2, Selvi Özen2
1Department of Pediatrics, Private Istanbul Hospital, Van, Turkey - baranserdar@hotmail.com.
Insights
Pharmaceuticals, insecticides, and plants are leading causes of acute childhood intoxications in Turkey. Most poisonings were accidental, with a low mortality rate of 0.4%.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Toxicology
- Public Health
Background:
- Acute intoxications in children pose a significant public health challenge.
- Understanding regional characteristics of childhood poisoning is crucial for prevention and management.
- Eastern Turkey has limited original data on pediatric acute intoxications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the characteristics, clinical features, and outcomes of acute intoxications in children.
- To identify the primary etiological agents and demographic patterns of pediatric poisonings in the Van region of Turkey.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of medical records for children under 17 years admitted to a pediatric emergency department.
- Data collected from June 2010 to November 2011.
- Evaluation of demographical, etiological, and treatment data.
Main Results:
- 239 cases of acute intoxication were recorded, with most patients under 5 years old.
- Pharmaceutical agents (57.3%) were the leading cause, followed by non-pharmaceutical agents (42.6%) including insecticides-pesticides (38.2%).
- Accidental poisonings predominated (93.8%), with a 0.4% mortality rate.
Conclusions:
- Pharmaceuticals are the most frequent cause of acute intoxications in children in this region.
- Insecticides-pesticides and plants are significant non-pharmaceutical causes.
- This study provides essential data on pediatric intoxications in Eastern Turkey.
Background:
The aim of this study was to investigate characteristics, outcomes and clinical features of acute intoxications among children in Van region of Turkey.
Methods:
All cases with a diagnosis of acute intoxication admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Department of the Yüzüncü Yıl University of Van from June 1, 2010 to November 30, 2011 were evaluated. We retrospectively examined the medical records for demographical and etiological characteristics of patients below 17 years of age.
Results:
A total of 239 intoxications were recorded. The majority of patients were under 5 years of age. Pharmaceutical agents were identified in 137 (57.3%) patients. Antidepressants with a majority of tricyclic antidepressants were the most common drugs (29.9%). Non-pharmaceutical agents were identified in 102 (42.6%) patients, 38.2% of which were insecticides-pesticides following by plants (25.4%) and carbon monoxide (17.6%). The majority (93.8%) of cases were accidental poisonings. Fourteen cases of intoxications occurred as suicide attempts and 85.7% (N.=12) of those patients were girls. Of all cases, gastric lavage was performed in 36.4% and activated charcoal administration in 53%. After hospitalization, only 23 (9.6%) of all patients received specific treatment besides symptomatic treatment. Specific treatments involved hemodialysis and antidotes such as biperiden, ethanol, atropine, neostigmine and pralidoxime. During the study period, one patient died due to acute intoxication of pesticide. The mortality rate was 0.4%.
Conclusions:
Our study revealed that pharmaceuticals were the most common cause of acute intoxications. While, insecticides-pesticides and plants were the leading non-pharmaceutic agents. Our data is important because it is one of few original reports on children with intoxication in Eastern Turkey.
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