When a toddler or an infant accidentally ingests a prescription opioid medication, the immediate results can prove deadly, experts warn.
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 28, 2022 -- reveals: pediatric poisonings from a particularly lethal combo — a potent synthetic opioid known as fentanyl and a powerful veterinary sedative called xylazine.
And within the world of overdose deaths, that risk is increasingly common, the new study authors pointed out. While fentanyl exposure alone accounted for 14% of overdose deaths in the United States in 2010, that figure shot up to almost 60% by 2017. While xylazine can provide significant pain relief and muscle relaxation when used to treat large animals , an adult or child who is exposed to xylazine-opioid combos can experience severe respiratory and central nervous system depression and cardiovascular effects that do not respond to naloxone, Deutsch noted.
A database of fatal drug overdoses in 38 states and Washington, D.C., cited by Deutsch and De Jong shows that quest has been gaining traction. By definition, such children are unwitting victims, poisoned due to the carelessness or poor choices of adult caretakers who bring the deadly combo into the home.One involved a 15-month-old boy who went into cardiac arrest after turning limp and blue in a car seat following exposure to the lethal drug pairing, presumably via his mother, who had nearly died a week earlier from a similar exposure.
In all three cases cited in the study, the children survived after emergency room treatment. “ some infants have died from xylazine exposure,” Deutsch noted.“Families and caregivers should always ensure that medications and any other objects that could be harmful to children should be kept in elevated locations — preferably in locked cabinets,” said Dr. Danielle Orsagh-Yentis. She is an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
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