Poisoning Admission in Children Hospital in Benghazi-Libya, Three Years Review of Medical Record

Estimation of the magnitude and causes of poisoning
was the objective of the current study. A retrospective study of
medical records of all poisoning children admitted to Benghazi
Children Hospital in Libya from January 2008 up to December 2010.
Number of children admitted was 244; the age ranged from less than
one to 13 years old. Most of cases were admitted with mild symptom
and the majority of them were boys. Only few cases admitted to
intensive care unit and there was no mortality recorded through the
period of study. Age group 1 to 3 years (50.8%) had the highest
frequency of admission and the peak of admission was during
summer. The most common cause of admission was due to ingestion
of medication (53.69%), House hold product exposure (26.64%) was
the second causes of admission while, 19.67% of admissions were
due to Food poisoning. Almost all admitted cases were accidental and
medicines were the most consumed substances in addition, improper
storage of toxic agents were the first risk factor of poisoning. Present
results indicated that, children poisoning seems to be a common
pediatric care problem which need to control and prevent.





References:
[1] Churchill living stone, Toxic emergencies ,edited by William Hanson,
TR 2002, published in New York-Edinburgh-London , First edition in
1984, p 14-16 ,22-27.
[2] Sayeda A, Gulati R.R , Anezi F. Risk factors in Acute poisoning in
children –A Retrospective study KWt Med J 2006 ;38(1);p33-36.
[3] Gulati Raj Rani . Burden of A cute poisoning Among children in
Kuwait, Medical Journal of family medicine 2006; 6(2),p12-14.
[4] Malek-Afzali H, Mahmoudi M. A review on vital statistics in Iran. Daru
Va Darman 1993:5–12.
[5] Laebelt E. Paediatric poisonings in the new millennium: new poisons,
new insights, new evidence. Current Opinion Paediatric . 2001; 13,155-
156.
[6] Median T. M. Accidental Paediatric Poisoning in Benghazi city in 2006,
Libya , faculty of pharmacy , Garyounis University (graduation project).
[7] Steel R. C. Chilhood Poisoning in Australia: AIHW National injury
Surveillance Unit at Flinder University ,South Australia. 2006.
[8] Anonymous. Unintentional poisoning in New York City Children. A
special report from the New York city Department of Health and
Hygiene 2009 ; 8(2),12-14.
[9] Goto K, Endoh Y, Kuroki Y, Yoshioka T. Poisoning in children in
Japan. Ind. J. Paediatric. 1997;64(4),461-468.
[10] Chien C. Marriott J.L, Ashby K. Ozanne-Smith J.Unintentional
ingestion of over the counter medications in children less than 5 years
old. Paediatric Child Health J. 2003; 39(4),264-269.
[11] Koushanfar A, Mohammadi M. Poisoning in children in Loghman
Hospital in 1999, MD thesis, Saheed- Beheshti University of Medical
Science, 1999.
[12] Borgelt –Hansen L. Oral Contraceptives .Am. Pharm. Asso.J.
2001;41(6),165-167.
[13] Weigert A, Black A. Caustic ingestion in children. Contin Educ.
Anaesth. Crit. Care pain 2005;5:1-8.