Perfil epidemiológico dos eventos tóxicos envolvendo crianças no Centro de Informação e Assistência Toxicológica em Fortaleza-CE no ano de 2017

Abstract

The intoxications cases in children are a severely Public Health problem, because, due to their vulnerability, inexperience and inability to predict or avoid risks, they are often victims of accidents, including those involving toxic agents. The objective of this study is to describe the profile of poisoning cases involving children registered in the Toxicological Information and Assistance Center in Fortaleza - Ceará. This is an epidemiological, cross-sectional, exploratory study. The data on these occurrences, referring for 2017, were obtained from a registration system used by the Center. The stats analyses were done using the program Statistic Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 23 to Windows. Approved by the Ethics Committee with the number 23265913.0.0000.5054. During the period analyzed, were registered in The Center, 4158 cases of exposition to different kinds of toxic agents, which of these, 531 (12.8%) involved children. The mean age found for these children was 5.3 ± 3.2 years old, with the age variation of 0 to 11 years old. The male gender was the most affected with 271 cases (51.0%). The cases occurred more frequently in the urban area and in the residences, with the same value for both (n = 444; 83.6%). The route of exposure most frequently involved in the occurrences was stinging / biting / contact (n = 430; 81.0%), followed by oral route with 69 cases (13.0%). Regarding the circumstances of exposure, the most frequent cases occurred accidentally (n = 495; 93.2%). Regarding the toxic agents involved, toxins were implicated in 416 cases (78.3%) and toxicants in 80 cases (15.1%). Among the toxins, the scorpion toxin was responsible for most of the cases (n = 379; 91.1%). In the group of toxicants, the drugs were responsible for the largest number of cases (n = 27; 33.7%), followed by pesticides (n=24; 30.0%) and sanitizing (n= 16; 20.0%). When presenting in the emergency room, 467 patients (88.0%) manifested mild intoxication and 33 (6.21%) moderate or severe intoxication. Regarding the outcome of the cases, 345 patients (65.0%) were referred, requiring additional treatment and others, asymptomatic (n =169; 31.8%), were discharged. The correlation between the outcome variable and the variables age, zone, place of occurrence, route of exposure, type of toxic agent, and the group to which the agent belongs were significant (p > 0,05). The occurrence of intoxication was verified based on the signs and symptoms manifested by the patient and the identification of toxic agent was possible based on the information provided by the patient or his family, since toxicological analyzes are not possible at this Center to identify the agent involved. According to the results obtained, the expressive10 number of accidents with children involving toxic agents requires the promotion of actions to prevent these occurrences.