Abstract
Background: Accidental paediatric poisoning is a common medical emergency and also associated
with a high morbidity and mortality in children. In developing countries like India,
the poisoning emergencies are becoming a major cause of mortality in infants and toddlers.
Among the various studies done on poisoning cases in our country, the study on poisoning
is more or less only on adults and hence this study is taken up to understand the
number of childhood poisoning cases (based on gender).
Method: A ten year record based cross sectional study from January 1999 to December 2008
was conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Kasturba Medical
College, Manipal, to understand the magnitude of childhood poisoning cases among males
and females at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal.
Results: Male children were predominantly affected (male: female::1.32: 1). Most of the poisoning
cases occurred at home in both the genders with boy to girl ratio based on percentage
in indoor poisoning being 0.92:1 and boy to girl ratio based on percentage in outcome
being 1.06:1.
Conclusion: Our study examines the difference in place and outcome of poisoning among boys and
girls to identify population at risk and give suggestions so as to reduce the morbidity
and mortality.
Keywords
paediatric - poisoning - gender
