Pediatrican and pediatric resident's knowledge about anaphylaxis in teaching hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Anaphylaxis is a potential life threatening condition which may control by proper diagnosis and efficacious management. The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge of anaphylaxis diagnosis and management in pediatric residents.
Subjects & This study was conducted in teaching hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. A total of 192 pediatrician and general and subspecialty pediatric residents during Sep. 2013 to Feb 2014 were included. They were asked to complete a 19 item questionnaire. Collected data analyzed using SPSS (version19) software. p Almost all respondents knew anaphylaxis as a life threathening event, however 23.4% didn’t answer correctly to the questions about signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis. None could determine therapeutic steps of anaphylaxis correctly, however, 94.7% agreed to administer epinephrine as the drug of choice for treatment (P=0.014). Only 78.1% correctly identified intramuscular route of epinephrine administration as the route of choice (0.000) and 71.4% used the proper dose. About half of participants knew about in-hospital observation time.
the present study indicated that, pediatricians and pediatric residentsoften are not very familiarwith the proper dosage of epinephrine, administration route and the optimaltime for hospitaldischarge in anaphylaxis. herefore, it seems that theoretical education about anaphylaxis is not sufficient to provide pediatric residents for clinical practice.