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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001;155:1277-1278.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

An estimated 800 000 percutaneous and mucocutaneous exposures to blood or at-risk biological substances occur in the United States each year.¹ Limited data from pediatric institutions have shown a rate of approximately 6 per 100 employees per year.^{2, 3}

In this report, we describe the occurrence of injuries from needlestick sharps in a pediatric teaching hospital. All reported percutaneous injuries sustained by health care workers (HCW) during an 8-year period from January 1993 through December 2000 were analyzed. Injury rates before (1993-1996) and after (1997-2000) introduction of the needlestick/exposure hotline were compared.

Children's National Medical Center (Washington, DC) is an urban, university-affiliated, multidisciplinary, regional referral center serving the District of Columbia and the surrounding metropolitan area. The hospital has 223 general pediatric beds, 16 pediatric intensive care beds, and 40 neonatal intensive care beds. An average of 72 pediatric residents, 75 fellows, and 250 visiting residents or fellows work at the hospital . . . [Full Text of this Article]