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Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care & Pain Advance Access originally published online on June 24, 2009
Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care & Pain 2009 9(4):109-113; doi:10.1093/bjaceaccp/mkp019
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© The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Board of Directors of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournal.org

Poisoning in children

Lisa Penny, MBChB MRCS Ed (A&E) FRCA
Specialist Registrar in Anaesthesia
University Hospital
Birmingham
UK

Tony Moriarty, MBBS FRCA
Consultant Anaesthetist
Department of Anaesthesia
Birmingham Children's Hospital
Steelhouse Lane
Birmingham
B4 6NW
UK
Tel/Fax: +44 121 333 9620
E-mail: tony.moriarty@bch.nhs.uk (for correspondence)

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Key points

Initial management and resuscitation should follow the ABC approach.
The National Poisons Information Service should always be contacted for advice.
Recognition of potentially life-threatening ingestions is important, so that appropriate pharmacological techniques can be used.
The small size of paediatric patients means that the ingestion of just one or two tablets can cause severe toxic sequelae, including death.
Prevention is the key to the long-term management of poisoning.

 

Suspected poisoning in children results in about 40 000 annual Emergency Department attendances in England and Wales, with approximately half of these admitted for observation or treatment.1 The majority of poisonings are accidental, especially in the under-5 age group, although intentional overdoses and substance abuse are seen in older children. Rarely, children present with symptoms as a result of deliberate administration of compounds by adults.

Deaths in children from poisoning are becoming increasingly rare with only two deaths reported in . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   How children differ from adults
 
Developmental considerations

Physical considerations


   Initial assessment and management
 

   Diagnostic testing
 

   Pharmacological manipulation
 
Gastrointestinal decontamination

Antidotes

Enhanced elimination


   Specific poisons
 
Acetaminophen

Salicylate

Tricyclic antidepressants

Household poisons and pesticides


   Prevention
 

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