Background: Poisonous plants ingestion is very common in the pediatric age group. Some studies suggest that pediatric exposure to poisonous plants is responsible for 5-10 % of all the calls to poison information centers.
Although most exposures are without any symptoms or with only mild manifestations, some plant exposures might cause substantial morbidity and even mortality.
Understanding the different toxidromes and the major poisonous flora is of paramount importance for prompt, effective treatment in children exposed to poisonous plants.
Objective: To characterize the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of pediatric poisonous plants exposure in Israel .
Methods: All pediatric plants exposures reported to The Israel National Poison Information Center during 2017 were reviewed retrospectively. Demographic data, as well as clinical manifestation were collected, only plants with definite identification were included.
Results: 358 cases of plants exposures were recorded, 59% of them were males and 41% were females, Irritant plants were the most common culprits ( 43% ) followed by digitalis like plants and plants causing anticholinergic toxidrome ( 15% and 9% respectively ). In 72% of the cases no symptoms were reported, substantial symptoms occurred in only 1.4%.
The most common involved organ was the gastrointestinal tract ( 65%), cardiovascular and central nervous system involvement were uncommon ( 1% and 4% respectively ).
Arum Palaestinum, Nerium oleander and Lantana camara were the most common plants reported.
Conclusions: this is an up to date report on Poisonous plants exposure in the pediatric Israeli age group. The study suggests that although usually unharmful the approach to Poisonous plants exposure should be managed according to the potential toxidromes of the different plants described in this study.
