title: Evaluation of caustics and household detergents exposures in an emergency service.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to analyse the caustic and household detergent exposure cases were admitted to the Department of Emergency Medicine at Dokuz Eylul University Hospital (EMDEU) between 1993 and 2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  Age, sex, reason of exposure, clinical signs, rate of endoscopy in oral exposures, treatment attempts, length of hospital stay and outcome were evaluated. A chi-square test was used to analyse statistical differences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Caustic exposures accounted for 8.5% (1160 cases) and 4.1% (1988 cases) of all poisonings in children and adults, respectively. Female/male ratio of caustic exposure poisonings was 0.8. Most of the exposures were unintentional (158, 86.8%). Intentional exposures were common in cases between 19 and 29 years old (χ(2) = 25.685, p < 0.001). The most common caustic substance was alkaline (106, 58.3%) followed by acidic (47, 25.8%) and other household detergents (28, 15.4%). Vomiting (35.7%), nausea (14.8%) and sore throat (13.1%) were the most common clinical signs. The patients who had endoscopy, the most frequent finding was first-degree damage (58.7%). A 48-year-old man died from intentional hydrochloric acid ingestion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because of the large number of unintentional caustic exposures, parent education is very important to decrease the caustic exposures in children.
authors.affiliation: Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, Izmir, Turkey. aylin.akgun@deu.edu.tr
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Arıcı
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Oray
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buyukdeligoz
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tuncok
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kalkan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002057:Burns, Chemical / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002424:Caustics / Q000633:toxicity*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003902:Detergents / Q000633:toxicity*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004947:Esophagus / Q000293:injuries*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006851:Hydrochloric Acid / Q000506:poisoning; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002424:Caustics; D003902:Detergents; D006851:Hydrochloric Acid