A Descriptive Clinical Study of Acute Poisoning Cases Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Poisoning is a major public health problem and due to industrialization and urbanization, its incidence is on a major rise and it may be poisoning, suicidal, accidental, or homicidal. It is extremely important for physicians to have the knowledge of common suicidal poisons in a particular locality as it may help in the early diagnosis and management of acute poisoning cases. Therefore, this study was conducted to know the clinical spectrum of acute poisoning cases in and around Mangaluru and the effectiveness of decontamination procedures.

100 patients admitted in the intensive care units and wards of the General Medicine department were observed in this study. Details of each of these patients like presenting complaints, time of onset of the symptoms, addictive habits, and the nature of poisons consumed were noted. Clinical parameters such as whether stomach wash was given or not, the time lapse between the consumption of poison and stomach wash, the time lapse between the consumption of poison and stomach wash and death of the patients, duration of hospital stay, psychiatric condition of the patient and overall mortality rate of poisoning cases, were observed in this study.

The present study shows that organophosphate poisoning is the commonest type of poisoning. Nausea or vomiting is the most common symptom. There is a significant correlation between the time elapsed between the consumption of poison and stomach wash and mortality. Mortality was highest in patients with paraquat poisoning followed by rat poisoning.