Criteria for hospitalizing children who have ingested products containing hydrocarbons
N. Anas, V. Namasonthi and C. M. Ginsburg
The clinical records of 950 children who ingested products containing
hydrocarbons were reviewed. Eight hundred children were asymptomatic at the
time of the initial evaluation and remained so during a six-to eight-hour
period of observation. All had normal chest films, and all were treated as
outpatients. One hundred fifty other children were admitted to the
hospital; 79 were symptomatic at the time of initial medical evaluation and
had abnormal chest roentgenograms. Seventy-one other children were
asymptomatic but had roentgenographic evidence of pulmonary involvement
(36) or had had pulmonary symptoms before arriving at the medical facility
(35). Complications (seven) occurred only in symptomatic children who had
roentgenographic evidence of pneumonia. These data suggest that the
majority of children who are brought for medical evaluation after ingesting
hydrocarbon-containing substances do not experience pulmonary complications
and therefore do not require hospitalization. Only children who are
symptomatic at the time of initial medical evaluation or who became
symptomatic during a six- to eight-hour observation period require
hospitalization.
