Gregori Dario, Morra Bruno, Gulati Achal
Laboratory of Epidemiological Methods and Biostatistics, Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, University of Padova, Via Loredan 18, 35121 Padova, Italy.
Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2012 May 14;76 Suppl 1:S42-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2012.02.011. Epub 2012 Feb 16.
Among foreign bodies causing injuries in children, magnets have been reported to cause serious complications and being life-threatening. The aim of this study is to design a risk profile and an epidemiological figure of such injuries, for being used for prevention.
Data on 366 injuries have been collected from public surveillance databases and from published scientific literature, and compared with the data of the Susy Safe registry, which is a pan-European registry of foreign bodies injuries co-funded by the European Commission.
A median age of 48 months was observed, with a 63% prevalence of males is characterizing the injuries. Magnets have a median volume of 87.9 mm(3) vs the median volume of 41.86 mm(3) of the overall foreign bodies of the Susy Safe registry). Only 43% of the magnets were involving only on piece or objects, with a median number of two objects per injury, up to a maximum of 32 objects. Children are referred to the medical care system with a median delay of 3 days after onset of symptoms. Median length of stay in the hospital was 7 days with respect to 1 day as in the Susy Safe registry.
Most of complications, and event the death of a child can be eventually re-conducted to either or both a delay in patient referral or appropriate diagnosis. Thus, it is an absolute priority that an information initiative is taken toward families and emergency doctors to avoid unnecessarily delays respectively in patient referral and in diagnosis.
在导致儿童受伤的异物中，据报道磁铁会引发严重并发症并危及生命。本研究的目的是设计此类损伤的风险概况和流行病学数据，以用于预防。
从公共监测数据库和已发表的科学文献中收集了366例损伤的数据，并与Susy Safe登记处的数据进行了比较，Susy Safe登记处是一个由欧盟委员会共同资助的泛欧洲异物损伤登记处。
观察到中位年龄为48个月，损伤患儿中男性患病率为63%。磁铁的中位体积为87.9立方毫米，而Susy Safe登记处所有异物的中位体积为41.86立方毫米。只有43%的磁铁仅涉及一件或一个物体，每次损伤的物体中位数为两个，最多可达32个。儿童在出现症状后中位延迟3天被转诊至医疗系统。住院中位时长为7天，而Susy Safe登记处为1天。
大多数并发症，甚至儿童死亡最终都可能归因于患者转诊延迟或诊断不当，或两者兼而有之。因此，当务之急是针对家庭和急诊医生开展宣传活动，以避免在患者转诊和诊断过程中出现不必要的延误。
