Common etiologies and new approaches to management of poisoning in pediatric practice.

Accidental exposure to drugs and household products in young children and self-poisoning by adolescents are common clinical problems of important concern to the general pediatrician. This article reviews new developments in the field of pediatric toxicology including 1) epidemiologic data collected from poison centers and hospital admissions that illustrate the changing spectrum of pediatric poisonings; 2) progress in identifying clinical features or laboratory tests predictive of outcome in specific poisoning; 3) advances in and limitations involving decontamination methods and antidote therapy in different toxic ingestions; and 4) recent investigations toward prevention of pediatric poisoning with an emphasis on barriers to compliance.