[Six-year review of cigarette ingestion in children--gastric lavage versus medical observation].

During 2006, the Japan Poison Information Center received 2583 inquiries about ingestion of cigarette, which is the most frequent household products ingested by children in Japan. During 2001-2006, two hundred and seventy-six children under seven years of age ingesting cigarettes and its related substances presented to the emergency department in Japan Red Cross Hospital Wakayama Center. The peak age was one year and younger, so-called "ingestion age". Patients were frequently detected chewing cigarettes and the situation of cases varied individually. It was impossible to estimate the amount of ingested cigarette based on the medical interview. Eighty-three percent of the patients were asymptomatic. Treatment strategy has been changed into a noninvasive one. Gastric lavage has not been performed by emergency physicians since 2001, and by pediatricians since 2006. After the medical observation for two hours following ingestion, all the children except one (who was hospitalized because of his family's request) were discharged from the emergency department. Independent of doing gastric lavage, all the 276 children had good prognosis. We conluded that ingestion of cigarette in children is generally benign. No gastric lavage, but medical observation for two hours following ingestion in emergency department is our recommendation of management.