Objective:
The purpose of
this study was to investigate the demographic and etiologic features of acute
poisoning cases, the toxic substances which cause the poisonings and their
properties, laboratory findings and clinical features retrospectively and to
show what could be the precautions to be taken.
Patients
and Methods: Total
of 483 patients, who were admitted to emergency department with drug poisoning
within 3 years and whose information was available were taken into this
retrospective study. The patients’ age, sex, date of admission to hospital,
duration of hospitalization in emergency department and intensive care unit,
clinical outcomes, agents and amounts of drugs taken, applied antidote and
extracorporeal treatments, laboratory values of cases were examined.
Results:
179 (37,1%) of
the cases were followed up for an average of 3,21 ± 4,5 days in the intensive
care unit and 304 (62,9%) patients were followed up for an average of 2,1 ± 2
days in the observation unit of the emergency department. When the
lipophilicity of poisoning drugs were examined, in 191 (39.5%) patients only
lipophilic, in 100 (20.7%) patients lipophilic and additional substance, in 83
(17.2%) patients only hydrophilic and in 109 (22.6%) patients hydrophilic drug
and additional substance was found. Extracorporeal treatment was applied to 14
patients. Our mortality rate was found 0.62%.
Conclusion:
Early
intervention in poisonings is life-saving. Supportive therapies, antidotes and
extracorporal techniques may reduce mortality, but toxicological guidelines may
be needed to guide clinicians in more extensive studies.
Primary Language | English |
---|---|
Subjects | Health Care Administration |
Journal Section | Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | March 10, 2018 |
Published in Issue | Year 2018 |