الفهرس 
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Abstract
Summary
Acute poisoning is one of the most common medical emergencies in young children and accounts for one of the leading causes for emergency department visits among adolescents. Childhood poisoning is a major cause of morbidity in both the developing and the developed world. In spite of the success of some intervention strategies to prevent accidental poisoning in the pediatric population, toxic ingestions continue to be a common occurrence.
The total number of cases admitted to the Poison Control Centre of Ain-Shams University Hospital was 846 cases. The duration of the study was one year, from January, 2016 to December, 2016. The various age groups involved ranged from less than one year to 18 years, with a mean age of 10.22 ± 6.83 years.
The most affected age group was adolescents (52.7 %), followed by pre-school age children (37.5 %), infants (6 %), and school age children (3.8 %). The predominant sex in cases were females (67 %) compared to (33 %) in males and most of cases were in urban areas (52.4 %).
According to the manner of toxicity, the majority of cases were accidental (74 %) while Suicidal poisoning was in (26 %). Accidental poisoning was more common than suicidal among all age categories. Also accidental poisoning was more common in males (85.7%) while suicidal poisoning was more common in females (31.7%).
It was found that the pesticides group was the most common (71%) among the household products intoxicated cases Followed by cleaning and disinfectant products group (18.9%), group of hydrocarbons (5.2%) and the miscellaneous group (4.9%). pesticides toxicity was more common in adolescent age group (70.9 %) while other types of household products toxicity was more common in preschool age children.
Most of the patients were vitally stable on admission and the most common clinical presentation was gastrointestinal symptoms (31.3%), neurological symptoms was in (22.3%) of patients and respiratory symptoms (10.8%).
Regarding the effect on serum electrolytes and blood glucose level, most of the patients had normal serum sodium, potassium and blood glucose level at presentation time. However, hypokalemia was detected in (26.7 %). Regarding ABG, the most common detected abnormality on admission was metabolic acidosis in (24.9 %) of patients followed by respiratory acidosis (8 %) then respiratory alkalosis (0.8 %). Most of cases had normal ABG (66.3 %) and no case was reported with metabolic alkalosis.
(80.5%) of patients received medical treatment in the inpatient wards. In most of cases, treatment was non-specific, including general decontamination and supportive-symptomatic therapy. Gastric lavage was performed in (13.1 %). Antidotes were given to treat 42.2 % of cases. Atropine was the most common antidote used in 26.5 % of cases, Toxoguonin (15.4 %) and NAC (0.3 %).
Recovery was the most common sequalae of management (96.7 %) while only (3.3 %) died. The highest mortality was in hydrocarbons group (9.1 %) followed by pesticides group (3.3 %) then cleaning & disinfectant products group (2.5 %).
Conclusions
In our study we concluded that:
Acute poisoning is an important cause of emergency unit admissions. Identification and documentation of epidemiological aspects and other variables in childhood poisoning are of great importance for treatment planning and determination of proper preventive measures.
The high incidence of acute poisoning by household products among children.
The incidence of poison exposure was highest among adolescents and pre-school age children. Intentional poisoning was more common in older girls and accidental poisoning was more common in younger boys.
Pesticides and household cleansing products were responsible for the majority of cases of poison exposure.
Gastrointestinal symptoms were the most common clinical presentations in acute toxicity by household products.
In most of cases, treatment was non-specific, including general decontamination and supportive-symptomatic therapy. The use of physiological antidote is limited to pesticides toxicity.