Objective:

Poisoning in children is a very important public health problem that is encountered very frequently in our country and in the world, may result in disability and mortality and constitutes an important work burden in emergency services and hospitals. This study was aimed at searching clinical and demographic characteristics of drug poisoning cases applying to the emergency policlinic and determining the measures to be taken to avoid from this kind of poisoning.

Material and Methods:

Within a one-year period after obtaining the approval of the ethics committee, files of 580 drugs poisoning cases of between 0-18 years old, whose full records could be reached and who apply to the Children Emergency Policlinic and/or are tracked through hospitalization were examined retrospectively. The cases were evaluated in terms of age, sex, the month and season of the poisoning, the first application time, hospitalization times, reason for poisoning, pharmacological agent resulting in poisoning and the pharmacological form of the drug resulting in poisoning.

Results:

In our study 56 % of the children applying to the emergency policlinic due to poisoning were female and 44 % were male children. When the frequency as per ages was evaluated, cases were in an increased level particularly between the ages 1-3, number of poisoning between the ages 6-10 was quite low. It was found highly significant that poisoning in cases aged between 11-15 years old increases as the age increases. It was detected that poisoning cases applied at a lower rate between 23:00 and 08:00 as compared to the other time brackets. In suicidal cases, the ratio of female children was higher as compared to male children. 56 % of the poisoning cases were with tablets and 13 % were with drugs in the form of syrup and suspension.

Conclusion:

In our country, the risk of drug poisoning increases due to the fact that little children are frequently left alone at home, drugs are maintained in easily accessible places and packages are non-protective. In addition to the measures to be taken by families, drug manufacturers and doctors, determination of the epidemiological characteristics of drug poisonings in our country both retrospectively and prospectively through multi-central studies may provide significant contributions to prevent poisoning in children and decrease the mortality and morbidity of the cases.

Keywords: Poisoning, child, suicide, pharmacological agent