LAUSR

Poisonings by illegal drugs are rarely seen in paediatric emergency departments (PEDs) and constitute approximately 1.5% of the total cases of poisoning.1 They usually occur in older patients that are exposed to these drugs in a recreational context, and cannabis is the substance most frequently involved.2 However, on rare occasions, PEDs manage young children that have been exposed to illegal drugs. These cases usually involve unintentional drug exposure resulting from the drive to explore characteristic of this age group. Although it has been described that the use of psychoactive substances in society at large carries the risk of minors being exposed to them, there are few published studies on the subject.3 It is likely that contact with health care services occurs in cases in which the minor exhibits significant symptoms,4 but the actual number of poisonings may exceed the documented number, as in some cases the symptoms may be minimal or short-lived. This study analyses the prevalence of this type of poisonings in the PEDs, as well as their characteristics and the way in which they are managed in these settings, based on the data of a prospective register of poisoning cases made by the Toxicology Surveillance System of the Spanish Society of Paediatric Emergency Care (Observatorio Toxicológico de la Sociedad Española de Urgencias de Pediatría) between October 2008 and June 2015. The study was approved by the Committee on Ethics and Clinical Research of the Basque Country. Appendix A lists the participating hospitals. The data collection protocol applied to each patient included the following variables: age and sex; toxic substance; poisoning setting; family history of substance abuse; potential for exposure to the substance; previous outpatient assessment and/or treatment; circumstances leading to transfer to the PED; signs and symptoms; diagnostic testing and/or treatments in the PED; patient destination after discharge and outcome. In the period under study, 413 461 emergency visits were managed in the participating PEDs, of which 1139 corresponded to poisonings (0.27%). Of the latter, 32 cases (2.8%) corresponded to poisonings by illegal substances: 23 involving a single substance and 9 involving a combination of