Differentiated choice of therapy regimen for acute poisoning with topical decongestants in children using a medical decision support system

Abstract

Introduction. Acute poisoning in children is a major public health issue worldwide. Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is designed to improve quality of medical care by integrating scientific knowledge and research with information technology. Aim. Analyze clinical features of poisoning, identify unintentional differences in drug therapy and create a CDSS for individual choice of therapy for acute poisoning in children. Materials and methods. This study includes 178 children hospitalized with acute drug poisoning in Voronezh Regional Children's Clinical Hospital No. 1 from 2016 to 2022. The CDSS for poisoning with topical decongestants includes an algorithm for determination of the case severity depending on the patient's complaints, state of the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and autonomic nervous system. Results. Most frequently poisoning in young children (under 5 years old) was caused by topical decongestants - 31 people (17.1%). After implementation of information technologies there was a significant decrease from 87.5% to 62.5% in the frequency of prescription of laboratory tests and infusion therapy in young children (p0.05). Decrease of glucocorticosteroid therapy in young children from 50% to 12.5% (p0,05). Conclusion. Information technologies implemented in the form of CDSS make it possible to carry out diagnosis and take therapeutic measures with consideration to individual features of the patient, reduce frequency of laboratory tests and drug load.