Ethanol Poisoning

ABSTRACT. A 3-year-old boy with severe ethanol poisoning metabolised ethanol more rapidly than expected (0.33 g/l/hour or 7.16 mmol/l/hour) and recovered fully with conservative management. It is concluded that active elimination techniques are unnecessary for most children with acute ethanol poisoning, child     

Amitraz Poisoning

Amitraz is a formamidine insecticide and acaricide which acts on alpha 2-adrenergic receptors. There is little information available in the literature about the toxicity and treatment of poisoning by this compound. The authors report amitraz poisoning in a 13-y-old boy which was managed with supportive care with a good outcome.     

Poisoning in children

Accidental poisoning is still a major problem in pediatric practice. Seventy two percent of the children affected by poisoning were under the age of 2 years. Kerosene oil ingestion was the most frequent cause (50%) of poisoning among them. Poisoning due to medicaments was responsible for another 32·4% of the cases. Among these, phenothiazine toxicity is the major cause. Neem oil, camphor, vegetable alkaloids, pesticides and heavy metal poisoning are other rare causes of poisoning. Mortality among the hospitalized children was 0·9%.     

Paraquat Poisoning in Children

Four children with paraquat poisoning are described, with 2 fatalities. In one fatal case delay in treatment occurred as the nature of the ingested fluid was uncertain. A method for rapid detection of paraquat in the urine is referred to. The treatment of paraquat poisoning consists of immediate gastric lavage and forced osmotic diuresis.     

Poisoning in children.

This study is a retrospective analysis of 670 cases of poisoning (including phenothiazine toxicity) admitted to this hospital in the past six years, accounting for 0.9% of all pediatric admissions. Nearly half (45%) of the cases were in the age group of 1-4 years. Medicines and chemicals were the commonest agents (53%), followed by pesticides (15%), kerosene (11.2%), plant poisons (9.4%), food poisoning (3.9%) and corrosives (1.9%). Accidental poisoning was the commonest (70%) followed by iatrogenic (29.6%) and suicidal (0.4%). Overall mortality was 1.8%. Stress is laid on judicious use of phenothiazines as antiemetics and replacing them with drugs of lesser toxicity.     

Poisoning by antidysrhythmic drugs

This article discusses the management of antidysrhythmic drug overdoses in children and adolescents.