Acute lead encephalopathy in young children

Aggressive Approach in the Treatment of Acute Lead Encephalopathy With an Extraordinarily High Concentration of Lead

“…Among the cases reported by Greengard et al 16 in 1965, the blood lead concentrations that resulted in death …”

“…Until the late 1960s, death rates for patients seen with severe neurologic sequelae (ie, seizures or coma) were reported to be approximately 25%, even after the development of calcium disodium EDTA. 10,16 Prior to this, Foreman 17 noted that encephalopathy secondary to lead poisoning, if left untreated, had a greater than 60% mortality rate. It was not until the standard of medical practice included the concurrent administration of BAL and calcium disodium EDTA that this fatality rate started to decrease.…”

Description of 3,180 Courses of Chelation with Dimercaptosuccinic Acid in Children ≤5 y with Severe Lead Poisoning in Zamfara, Northern Nigeria: A Retrospective Analysis of Programme Data

“…Lead-related child deaths in US cities in the 1950s and 1960s were frequent [10] , [11] and were primarily related to lead paint ingestion. Chisolm and Harrison reported 36 cases of severe lead encephalopathy between 1954 and 1956 [12] , and 38 cases were reported by Greengard et al between 1959 and 1963 [13] . Fatal lead poisoning in resource-rich countries has rarely been reported in recent decades.…”

Association of Blood Lead Level with Neurological Features in 972 Children Affected by an Acute Severe Lead Poisoning Outbreak in Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria

“…Although there has been some characterisation of the clinical pattern of lead toxicity [4], [10], [25] and the VBLL threshold for encephalopathy is often stated to be in the range of 70–100 µg/dL [4], [26], there are limited data on the VBLL threshold above which life-threatening effects including encephalopathy are likely to occur in children [10], [25], [27], [28]. In this paper we describe nearly 1000 lead exposed children with VBLL ≥45 µg/dL, and the clinical and demographic characteristics associated with neurological features using basic clinical examination.…”