Citation

Kivistö JE, Arvola T, Parkkari J, Mattila VM. Acta Paediatr. 2008; 97(6): 790-794.

Affiliation

School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00771.x

PMID

18397353

Abstract

Aim: Acute poisonings are a major cause of morbidity among children. This study aims to describe the incidence and nature of emergency visits for acute pediatric poisoning among Finnish children. Methods: 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). Results: 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%. Conclusion: Acute pediatric 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.

Language: en