Long-term Follow-up Study of Pulmonary Function Test in Children with History of Hydrocarbon Aspiration

Aspiration of hydrocarbons causes several acute and chronic pulmonary complications; it may even lead to death. The aim of this study was to investigate the types of long-term pulmonary complications in children with a history of hydrocarbon aspiration.

In this case-control study, 21 children with history of hydrocarbon aspiration in the past 1-10 years were considered as case group, and 63 children without history of toxicity were regarded as the control group. The two groups were matched in terms of age and gender. Both groups underwent physical examination (such as height, weight and body mass index), and pulmonary function tests by spirometry. Pulmonary function was categorized based on three spirometric patterns, normal, obstructive, and restrictive. In addition, the baseline characteristics of children and information obtained from clinical and paraclinical examinations during poisoning were recorded in a researcher-made checklist. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16.0).

The percentage of normal, obstructive and restrictive spirometric patterns were 61.89%, 28.58%, and 9.52% in the case group, and 88.88%, 11.11% and 0% in the control group, respectively (P <0.05). In the case group, the results of spirometry test showed no association with the clinical signs and symptoms as well as the radiological findings at the time of poisoning (P> 0.05). The results of the pulmonary function test were not related to the time elapsed from poisoning (P> 0.05).

Based on the results, long-term hydrocarbon poisoning caused pulmonary dysfunction in terms of spirometric patterns in children.