Acute Versus Chronic Salicylate Poisoning
1 Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health, Science Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75235
To the Editor.
The paper by Gaudreault et al1 comparing acute versus chronic salicylate poisoning is misleading in that the two groups are in many ways dissimilar and therefore really cannot be compared. The acute group was comprised of healthy children whereas the chronic group was comprised of ill children who probably had one or more of the signs and symptoms upon which severity was based (nausea, vomiting, dehydration, etc) prior to ingesting salicylate. This may have played a part in their disease in spite of the comments to the contrary.1




