1266 Poisonings in Children: A Two Years' Experience in a District Hospital's Pediatric Clinic

Introduction: Poisonings in childhood are a usual cause of children's admission to a pediatric ward. The most usual toxic exposures and ingestions occur at home and involve drugs, cigarettes and nondrug products such as chemical substances, plants and hydrocarbons. Aim: of the study is to make an epidemiological recording of the poisoning incidents in a distict hospital's pediatric clinic during the period 2008- 2009. Material-Methids: 96 children were admitted in a two years' period and were studied according to age, sex, nationality and the ingested substance. Results: 96/1228 (7,8%) children with a mean age 3,3y admitted because of a drug-substance poisoning. 80/96(83,3%) were greek, 13/96(13,5%) were roma and only 3/96(3,2%) were foreigners. The male children were significantly more (58/96(60,4%)) than the females (38/96(39,6%)). The majority of the incidents happened during fall (37/96(38,5%)) and spring (34/96(35,4%)). Fewer happened during summer (14,6%) and winter (11,4%). 67/96 (69,8%) were infants (1,0-3,0) y, 22/96(22,9%) were 3,1-6,0 y and 7(7,3%)were > 6 y. 19/96(19,8%) with a mean age 1,5 years old, ingested cigarettes and 48/96(50%) ingested drugs (3 of them attempted to suicide). The rest 29 cases involved non drug products (alcohol:5, hydrocarbons:8, cleaning substances: 9, plants:4, cosmetics:3) None of these cases had adverse reactions. Conclusion: Unintetional poisonings are common in children younger than 6 years of age, happen mostly at home and involve mostly cigarette and drug ingestion. Pediatricians must be aware and have to educate the parents in order the chidren to live in a safer environment.