Retrospective analysis of the intoxication cases followed in an intensive care unit

Abstract

Intoxications occur accidentally or due to suicide attempts and some cases are evaluated in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the patients older than 18 years old who were admitted to our second level intensive care unit from emergency department between 2010-2013. All the patients with prediagnosis of poisoning who were admitted to ICU were evaluated with respect to their demographic properties, etiology of poisoning, substance that exposured, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, length of stay, methods of treatment and prognosis of the patient. Of the patients, 70.9% were female, 29.1% of them were male and their mean age was 31.13±0.89. Of the all cases, 76.7% were drug poisoning 11.6% food poisonings, 5.8% carbonmonoxide poisoning, 4% overdosage of alcohol and 1.8% insect and snake biting and 94.3% of them were due to suicide attempt, 5.7% of them were accidental exposure. The mean age of the suicide group patients was 26.4±0.7 years and 82.3% of them were female, 17.7% of them were male. In the poisoning cases of the suicide group, analgesic and antipyretic drugs were the first with 43% rate and antidepressants and/or anxiolytics were the second with 29% rate. GCS score was 13 or more than13 in 99.2% of the patients who were admitted to ICU. The mean hospitalisation time was 1.77±0.59 days. All patients of 95.6% had been discharged, while 4.4% of them had been sent to third level ICU. Our mortality rate was zero between the date set. Although active substances, amount and intake methods are important, it is also possible to observe a good prognosis with an effective treatment and early intervention in all poisoning cases.

Keywords

• Accidental exposure
• Intoxications
• Intensive care unit
• Suicide attempt

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