[Acute poisoning in childhood. 607 admissions during a 5-year period to a Danish pediatric department]

Abstract

This article presents a review and an analysis of the 607 patients admitted to the Paediatric Department in Gentofte University Hospital, Copenhagen, on account of all kinds of poisoning during the period of five years from 1980 to 1985. We observed that the number of inpatients on account of poisoning constituted 4.5% of the total number of inpatients. The female to male ratio was registered as 0.84. No significant differences in admission of patients in each of the five years were found. 97.5% of the children were hospitalized only for two days or even less. Of the total number of patients, 75% were observed in the age groups up to four years and 53% in the interval between one and three years. Concerning the type of poisoning agents: we found that 29% were poisoned with solid substances, 24% with chemical-technical agents, 23% with botanical agents, 22% with various kinds of medicine and finally 2% with gaseous agents. A possible coherence between the different categories of poisoning agents and the age intervals was reviewed. 31% of the admitted children developed symptoms, of which the most frequently observed were gastrointestinal, cerebral and respiratory. The poison categories with the highest frequency of complications were the chemical-technical agents and those determined by ingestion of medicine.