NAPLES, FLA. – They sizzle, they buzz, they vibrate. And they’re sending some children to the emergency department.
"One of the newest things we’re seeing a fair amount of are magnets, those sizzle magnets," reported Karen Macauley, DHA, R.N., trauma program director, All Children’s Hospital, St. Petersburg, Fla., and secretary of the Society of Trauma Nurses.
So-called "sizzle" magnets make a sound when they connect and are being sold as novelty toys, jewelry, and even for purported health benefits. One website specializing in gifts for the visually impaired notes that the magnetic field of these hematite magnets is "so strong," they’ll stay put if placed on the front and back of hands or ear lobes.
Dr. Karen Macauley
That strong magnetic force, however, can create havoc if children ingest magnets of any kind, Dr. Macauley said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
"If the magnets stay in a string, they’re probably okay; but if they swallow one and wait a little while and swallow another, you can start to imagine what happens as it starts to pass through," she said. "One magnet stays, another comes in another part of the bowel, and they sizzle together. Now all of a sudden you have magnets that aren’t moving and cause a lot of necrosis. They’re actually very dangerous, and we don’t think too much about how dangerous they can be."
Between 2009 and 2011, an estimated 1,700 emergency department visits occurred because of magnet ingestion, with more than 70% of those cases involving children between age 4 and 12 years, according to researchers at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which highlighted magnets in its most recent annual toy safety survey.
Dr. Macauley also cautioned that button-size batteries, now in everything from remote controls to Grandma’s singing greeting card and hearing aid, are also a concern because they can cause burns or erode through tissue if ingested or put into body orifices.
"These batteries are everywhere, and kids do crazy stuff with them," she said.
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Dr. Macauley also cautioned that button-size batteries are also a concern because they can cause thermal burns or erode through tissue if ingested or put into body orifices.
The National Capital Poison Center, which operates a 24-hour National Battery Ingestion Hotline (202-625-3333)* for swallowed battery cases, estimates 3,500 Americans of all ages swallow miniature disc or button batteries each year.
The problem has been recognized for some time, but what few parents or providers realize is how quickly burns can occur, Dr. Macauley said.
She described a case involving a 6-year-old girl who picked up a small battery off the playground and amazed her friends by making it disappear in her ear. The child complained of severe pain overnight and presented to the emergency department in the morning, where surgery to remove the battery revealed third-degree burns to the ear canal and 65% perforation of the eardrum.
"It seemed like it should have been nothing; it was in there maybe 12 hours, but she had very severe injuries to her ear," Dr. Macauley said. "She’s been in the operating room probably a total of six different times trying to get that repaired, has a fair amount of hearing loss that stays, and ended up at a specialist hospital, out of network, to get a graft put in that ear."
Greeting card makers such as Hallmark have taken steps to secure button batteries, such as enclosing them underneath metal caps or in modules in which the cap is secured with screws. And the card makers warn consumers to properly dispose of old batteries after they’ve been replaced.
Dr. Macauley reported having no financial disclosures.
Correction, 3/5/2014: An earlier version of this article misstated the phone number for the Battery Ingestion hotline.