Healthcare Update Satellite — 09-22-2014

More updated from around the web at my other blog at DrWhiteCoat.com Study in the journal Pediatrics shows that about 10,000 children are hospitalized each year for accidental medication ingestions. Three quarters of those hospitalizations involved 1 or 2 year olds. Twelve medications were responsible for 45% of all pediatric emergency hospitalizations for accidental drug ingestions. Opioids were not surprisingly the top classification prompting hospitalizations, but buprenorphine and clonidine were the top two medications – responsible for 15% of all hospitalizations. The rate of hospitalization for buprenorphine products was 100 times greater than that for oxycodone-containing products. Keep in mind that we’re not talking about overdose rate, we’re talking about hospitalization rates. I looked up suboxone which seems to be a major source of buprenorphine prescriptions, but didn’t see anything that would suggest more of a danger over other opiates. Can any tox folks out there comment on why hospitalization rates are so much higher for buprenorphine ingestions? Not a good day for this Iowa emergency department patient. Goes to the emergency department with abdominal pain. Apparently doesn’t like the treatment he’s receiving, so he tries to call an ambulance to come and get him inside the emergency department. Then prepares to spit on a security guard and gets sprayed with mace as a result. Police called and find out that he has warrants fo...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs