Pulmonary aspiration after activated charcoal in unintentional acute poisonings in childhood.

Introduction: Although the administration of activated charcoal (AC) is considered safe, the associated risk of pulmonary aspiration explains certain reluctance of physicians to use this procedure. The objective of this study was to analyse the rate of pulmonary aspiration in children receiving AC after accidental ingestion of a toxic substance.

Methods: We carried out a substudy of a multicentre prospective registry-based cohort study including children presenting with acute poisoning to 58 paediatric emergency department (EDs) members of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine between 2008 and 2022 on certain previously designated days.