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(Pediatrics in Review. 2006;27:163-169.)
© 2006 American Academy of Pediatrics

Childhood Drowning

Robyn J. Meyer, MD, MS^*
Andreas A. Theodorou, MD^*
Robert A. Berg, MD^*,

^* The University of Arizona Steele Memorial Children’s Research Center, Tucson, Ariz
Sarver Heart Center, Tucson, Ariz

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.

	Objectives

 
After completing this article, readers should be able to:

1. List preventive efforts that may decrease drowning rates in the pediatric population.
   
2. Name the physiologic consequences of hypoxic-ischemic injury in drowning victims.
   
3. Explain the importance of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation for pediatric drowning victims.
   
4. Discuss the appropriate interventions for each stage of drowning-associated cardiac arrest.
   
5. Specify which pediatric drowning victims may be discharged from the emergency department.
   

	Definitions

 
Terminology used to describe drowning often has been confusing and inconsistent. To alleviate this confusion, an international consensus conference was convened at the 2002 World Congress on Drowning with the goal of developing uniform terminology. The recently published recommendations define drowning as "a process resulting in primary respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in a liquid medium." (Idris et al. 2003) Accordingly, the term "drowning" should be used regardless of the outcome. In addition, the consensus document specifically recommends that confusing and inconsistent terms, such as "near-drowning," "secondary drowning," "passive drowning," "silent drowning," "wet drowning," and "dry drowning" be abandoned.

	Epidemiology

 
Drowning is a major source of pediatric mortality and morbidity worldwide. Although differences in lifestyle and exposure to water may affect the circumstances under which drowning occurs in different countries, drowning consistently remains a leading cause of death throughout the world. In the United States in 1998, more than 1,500 children younger than 20 years of age died from drowning, making it the second leading cause of accidental childhood death. For children 12 to 23 months of age, drowning was the leading cause of accidental death and the second leading cause of death overall. There is less information concerning morbidity, but it is estimated that for each drowning death, there are one to four nonfatal drowning events requiring hospitalization. Such hospitalizations often result in prolonged disability requiring considerable monetary and emotional resources.

Within the pediatric population, rates . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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