Objective: To identify types of childhood poisoning exposures leading to consultation to emergency departments (ED) in Spain.
Methods: We carried out a multicenter prospective registry-based cohort study including children with acute poisonings presenting to 55 pediatric EDs of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine between 2008 and 2017, during previously designated certain days.
Results: During the study period, we registered 749 803 pediatric ED presentations, of which 1749 were for poisonings (0.23%). Most commonly involved toxicants were therapeutic drugs (845, 48.3%), household products (387, 22.1%), ethanol (168, 9.6%), cosmetics (88, 5%) and CO (73, 4.2%). We identified five types of poisoning presentations. Two types occurring at home involving young children accounted for 1368 episodes (78.2%): non-intentional ingestions and dosage error of therapeutic drugs (791, 45.2%), and non-intentional ingestions of household products and cosmetics (577, 33%). Most commonly involved toxicants were benzodiazepines and detergents in each group. The remaining three groups required more interventions in the ED and had a lower rate of outpatient management: intentional ingestion of therapeutic drugs (105, 6%, frequently suicide attempts, mainly with benzodiazepines or combinations of therapeutic drugs), non-intentional inhalation of CO (76, 4.3%) and recreational ingestion of ethanol or use of illicit drugs (200, 11.4%). The distribution of these groups showed differences related to sex, domestic habits of storage of toxicants, symptoms, management in the ED and patient disposition.
Conclusion: We identified five different types of childhood poisoning presentations to Spanish EDs. Best practices need to be identified for prevention of these episodes. European Journal of Emergency Medicine XXX: 000-000 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.