New research is warning that children are increasingly swallowing button and cylindrical batteries that can lodge in the throat and cause serious injury. The button batteries are used for watches, remote controls, flashlights, hearing aids and cameras. The research, published in the June issue of Pediatrics, comes from two institutions – the National Capital Poison Center and department of emergency medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.
One study looked at the problem of battery ingestion found to have increased 6.7-fold between 1985 and 2009. That is a direct result of the increase in the use of the small batteries. Researchers are calling for child-resistant measures including a warning label and a seal to better keep the batteries out of little hands. Lodged in the esophagus, they must be removed within two hours before serious injuries can occur such as tearing tissue, burning and internal bleeding.
Jacksonville product liability injury attorneys are concerned that battery ingestions of both the 20-25 millimeter diameter batteries and the lithium battery cells are on the rise. The lithium batteries pose the most risk because they can cause severe burns two hours after ingesting. The research shows that children under the age of 6 were most likely to be involved in button battery ingestions, in 62.5% of the time.
In the case of fatalities and major injuries, 85% of the time it occurred in children under the age of four. Too often the medical community does not know what to look for and more than half of the fatal cases, 13 of the17 cases, the symptoms were initially misdiagnosed. Researchers say the medical community needs to be better trained in what symptoms to look for including lethargy, poor appetite, vomiting, irritability, cough, wheezing and dehydration.
There are questions arising in the medical community about the popular artificial hips as some suspect the medical devices are causing bone and severe tissue damage in some patients that can lead to surgery. Metal-on-metal implants are used in about one-third of the 250,000 hip replacements performed in the U.S. every year, according to this NY Times article. The ball-and-socket joints are made from cobalt and chromium, but recent studies show that sometimes the devices can wear, causing metal debris to be absorbed into the patient’s body.
Metal debris can begin an inflammatory reaction that can eventually lead to the death of tissue in the hip joint and bone. Not only do they have to be replaced sooner than the 15 years that hip replacements generally last, but complications can arise such as destruction of the bone. So far a limited number of studies show that one to three percent of patients may be affected by this form of defective medical device in Florida and throughout the nation, and women are more likely to have the problem than men.
Manufacturers downplay the complications of the fairly new metal-on-metal medical devices. Zimmer Holdings says its meal-on-metal system is not associated with an increased risk to the patient. But doctors at some major hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic, are removing the metal hip replacements and Mayo has reduced by 80 percent its use of the metal-on-metal implants. Adding to the complications, when the metal hips are installed slightly askew, they are less forgiving and may cause severe pain to patients.
Two new studies are reporting on the increasing number of severe injuries among children who ride all-terrain-vehicles or ATVs, including spinal injuries and amputations. According to a Business Week report, Dr. Jeffrey Lawyer, an assistant professor of orthopaedics at the Campbell Clinic at the University of Tennessee co-authored both papers.
He reports that a spine injury is devastating for a young person. Amputations typically include fingers, legs, and toes. He reported his findings at the American Aademy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting in New Orleans. Included in the information – fatalities from ATV accidents increased nearly 60 percent between 2000 and 2005. Non-fatal injuries rose 48 percent.
Three-wheeled ATVs have been banned, mostly over safety issues, but the four-wheeled versions are not necessarily safer. Researchers searched emergency room records at a trauma center in California from 2005 to 2007 as the basis for the research. There were 110 patients in all. The multi-rider ATV accidents were ten times as likely to result in the need for an amputation as a single-rider ATVs. Another study found almost 4,500 U.S. children in 2006 were injured in an ATV-related accident. Of those children, more than 7 percent suffered a spine injury. That represented at least a 140 percent increase in the overall number of children injured since 1997 and a 467 percent increase in spinal injuries, reports HealthDay. The dramatic rise in injuries could be due to more of these vehicles on the road. Today there are an estimated 9.2 million, up from 400,000 in 1985.
