Cases of magnet ingestion in children have been on the rise over the past decade.
Stornger neodymium-iron-boron magnets have been marketed as toys in recent years, increasing the risk of magnet ingestion an Elsevier Health Sciences news release reported. These cases have resulted in serious injury and even death.
To make their findings a research team looked at data on magnet ingestion from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).
In order to be included in the study the patient had to be under the age of 18 and have suffered suspected or confirmed magnet ingestion.
"We chose to limit our scope to the alimentary tract because the majority of serious harm from magnets arises from perforations and fistulae of the stomach, small bowel, and colon," Matt Strickland, MD, said in the news release.
The study was divided into two time periods (2002 to 2009 and 2010 to 2012) to see how the introduction of "small, spherical magnet sets" in 2009 affected the data.
Out of the 2,722 patients that visited the hospital for foreign body ingestion 94 met the inclusion criteria. Thirty of the patients were believed to have ingested multiple magnets.
Incidents of magnet ingestion tripled after 2009 and the instances of injury involving magnets increased 10 times.
Six of the cases observed required surgery for "sepsis or potential for imminent bowel perforation," the news release reported. All six of those cases occurred between the years of 2010 and 2012. Between the two time periods the size of magnets decreased by 70 percent.
"More concerning, however is the increased number of high-risk injuries featuring multiple, smaller magnets," doctor Strickland said.
Over the past 10 years there have been a number of "magnet-specific toy standards, labeling requirements, product recalls, and safety advisories" issued over the past decade, but the researchers urge that more action is taken to protect children from magnet ingestion.
