Swallowing Button Batteries Causing More Severe Injuries
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Writer: ingestionsinvolvedbatteries
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News Date: 18 May 2010
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Researchers in the US found there has been a significant increase over the last 25 years in the percentage of severe injury and deaths in children who swallow batteries, at the same time as button batteries have become increasingly common for use in household products.
Two papers by Dr. Toby Litovitz of the National Capital Poison Center in Washington DC and colleagues published recently in the journal Pediatrics describe how they analyzed button battery ingestion cases, how they might be prevented, and what the clinical implications are.
When button batteries, such as the increasingly common 20 mm diameter lithium cell used to power many household products, get stuck in the throat they can cause severe tissue damage within just 2 hours of ingestion. Further damage can also ensue, such as paralysis of the vocal cords, narrowing or stricture of the esophagus or food pipe, a hole connecting the windpipe to the food pipe (tracheoesophageal fistula), or severe internal bleeding as a result of a hole into a major blood vessel.
In the first paper, the researchers describe how they analyzed a total of 8,648 battery ingestion cases that were reported to the National Battery Ingestion Hotline in the US.
They found that:
* 62 per cent of cases of battery swallowing in children under 6 were of batteries that came directly from a product.
* This compared with 30 per cent that were loose and 8 per cent that were in their packaging.
* For the most hazardous battery, the 20 mm lithium cell, in 37 per cent of cases of swallowing in young children, the batteries were intended for remote controls.
* In cases where adults swallowed batteries, 81 per cent of them were of batteries that were loose, eg been left lying around or discarded.
* This compared with 4 per cent that came out of a product, 3 per cent from battery packaging, and 12 per cent swallowed inside a hearing aid.
* 36 per cent of the ingestions involved batteries that were intended for hearing aids.
* 16 per cent of ingestions involved batteries that were mistaken for pills, mostly by older adults.
Litovitz and colleagues concluded that we should teach parents and people who care for children about how to prevent battery ingestion.
Also, in light of the finding that nearly two thirds of battery ingestions are of batteries taken out of products, they recommended that manufacturers house the batteries in household products in a secure compartment, perhaps even requiring a tool to open it.
In the second paper, Litovitz and colleagues added more data sources to include all known cases involving esophageal or airway button battery lodgment in the US. These sources included over 55,000 cases from the National Poison Data System (from 1985 to 2009), and the medical literature as well as the National Battery Ingestion Hotline.
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Published BY: ingestions involved batteries
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