Profile of acute childhood poisoning in South India: A prospective study

Introduction: Childhood poisoning is a frequent cause of admissions to paediatric emergency wards. 

Objective: To ascertain the major causative agents and mortality of childhood poisoning and to compare them with previous studies. 

Method: A prospective observational study was conducted in JSS University Hospital, Mysore, India from November 2013 to April 2015. All children below 15 years of age with poisoning admitted to the paediatric ward were included. Those with food poisoning, snake bite and scorpion sting were excluded.

Results: A total of 105 children with poisoning below 15 years of age were admitted contributing to 1.58% of the total admissions. Majority of the cases (84.7%) were below 5 years of age. Males constituted 58% of cases and 63% of cases were from rural areas. Accidental poisoning was the commonest mode seen in 90% of cases. Hydrocarbons (32.4%), pesticides (21.9%), drugs (20.9%), and household compounds (18.09%) were the offending agents. Kerosene poisoning alone contributed to 24.8% of cases. The commonest mode of presentation was vomiting seen in 59% of patients. While tachycardia (38.1%) and tachypnoea (24.8%), were commonly observed, more than half of the cases had no abnormal findings. One patient died due to organophosphorus poisoning giving a mortality rate of 0.95%.

Conclusions: In this study 90% of poisoning in children were accidental in nature. Kerosene poisoning alone contributed to 25% of cases.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2018; 47(4): 321-325