ASSESSMENT OF SEVERITY GRADING OF ACUTE POISONING IN CHILDREN

Abstract

Acute poisoning in children is now one dfthe common medical emergencie,. I . It has to be treated with maximum effort from medical, psychological and socia'l I ! aspects. Established objective criteria for severity grading of childhood poisoning is

still lacking in the published Egyptian medicallitefature. : I

The present work aimed to study the /pattern and severity grading of acu e I poisoning among children less than 15 years adrrlitted to Alexandria Poisoning Center (APC) at Alexandria Main University Hospi'tal (AMUH) as regards frequenc;, circumstances of poisoning, type of poisoning, !eve! of consciousness, assessment qf ' severity grading of acute poisoning using Multi9enter Study of Poisoning in Childrep

(MSPC) score, and outcome. I

I . The study entailed 1072 children less than 15 years old with acute poisoning admitted to APC during six months period sta1ing from the first of July 2000 till th.e end of December 2000. They constituted 30.8% bfthe total cases with acute poisonink d (n=3475). Only 3% needed rc&

The study showed that a high percent ge of patients were encountered in th age group less than 5 years (62.8%) with a peak age in toddlers 1< 3 years (41.2%') I ' followed by those aged 10-15 years (26.1%)lln general the mn age ofthe sample . . •..• , • I . . .,. . was 5.6 ± 4.4 years.

As regards sex, the present study reve led that boys exceeded girls in the agb , I group 0<5 years (69.5% compared to 56.3%)j On the other hand, girls predominat¢

boys in the age group 10<15 years (31.8% compared to 20.2%) where attempted I I suicide was the cause.