Paediatric poisonings treated in one Finnish main university hospital between 2002 and 2006.

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 paediatric 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 paediatric 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.