Incidence of jellyfish sting among children in Beidaihe area：a retrospective study

Objective To describe the incidence, clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of jellyfish sting among the children in Beidaihe area of Hebei province and to provide references for clinical diagnosis and treatment and prognosis of the injury.Methods Medical records of 554 children with primary jellyfish sting injury during the period of July to August 2013 were collected from Beidaihe Hospital and analyzed.Results Of the 554 jellyfish sting cases, the number of mild, moderate and severe injury were 415(74.91%), 78(14.08%), and 61(11.01%), repectively.No gender difference in severity of the injury was observed among the cases(P>0.05).The average age of the child cases was 8.34±3.19 years.There were 66.25%(367)of the cases with the injured skin of ≤5% and 3.97%(22)with the injured skin of ≥30% of body surface area.Totally 385(69.49%)cases had the jellyfish sting at below the calf and 127(22.92%)cases at upper limbs.Recurrent dermatitis related to the jellyfish sting was diagnosed in 57(10.63%)cases.Conclusion The age of most of the children impaired by the jellyfish sting outbreak in 2013 in Beidaihe area was between 5- 13 years.The clinical manifestation of the jellyfish sting injury is diversiform with rare serious complications.