TY - JOUR
T1 - Toxico-Surveillance of Infant and Toddler Poisonings in the United States
AU - Finkelstein, Yaron
AU - Hutson, Janine R.
AU - Wax, Paul M.
AU - Brent, Jeffrey
PY - 2012/9
Y1 - 2012/9
N2 - Infant and toddler poisonings are important to capture and may be challenging to manage. We aim to describe the Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC) Case Registry as a tool for toxico-surveillance of this problem in the United States. Using the ToxIC Case Registry database of the American College of Medical Toxicology, we identified infant and toddler poisonings over a 15-month period between April 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 reported to the 31 Registry sites. Of 6,810 poisoning cases reported to the ToxIC registry, 248 (3.6 %) involved children younger than 2 years (51 % males). Fifty-four percent were hospital inpatients, 42 % were in the Emergency Department and 4 % were outpatients. Sixty-three percent were symptomatic. The most common ingested compounds were highly toxic-cardiac drugs (16 %), psychotropics (15 %), recreational drugs, alcohols, and controlled narcotic drugs (13 %), analgesics (9 %), and cleaning compounds (7 %). Fourteen percent of cases involved multiple agents. The ToxIC registry is a potentially useful toxico-surveillance tool to identify and trend clinically significant poisonings in young children, and potentially other populations. These data could be used to target specific preventive interventions.
AB - Infant and toddler poisonings are important to capture and may be challenging to manage. We aim to describe the Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC) Case Registry as a tool for toxico-surveillance of this problem in the United States. Using the ToxIC Case Registry database of the American College of Medical Toxicology, we identified infant and toddler poisonings over a 15-month period between April 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 reported to the 31 Registry sites. Of 6,810 poisoning cases reported to the ToxIC registry, 248 (3.6 %) involved children younger than 2 years (51 % males). Fifty-four percent were hospital inpatients, 42 % were in the Emergency Department and 4 % were outpatients. Sixty-three percent were symptomatic. The most common ingested compounds were highly toxic-cardiac drugs (16 %), psychotropics (15 %), recreational drugs, alcohols, and controlled narcotic drugs (13 %), analgesics (9 %), and cleaning compounds (7 %). Fourteen percent of cases involved multiple agents. The ToxIC registry is a potentially useful toxico-surveillance tool to identify and trend clinically significant poisonings in young children, and potentially other populations. These data could be used to target specific preventive interventions.
KW - Case registry
KW - Infants
KW - Poisoning
KW - Toxicology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84865716589&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84865716589&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13181-012-0227-1
DO - 10.1007/s13181-012-0227-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 22528591
AN - SCOPUS:84865716589
SN - 1556-9039
VL - 8
SP - 263
EP - 266
JO - Journal of Medical Toxicology
JF - Journal of Medical Toxicology
IS - 3
ER -