Citation

Akkose S, Bulut M, Armagan E, Cebicci H, Fedakar R. J. Toxicol. Clin. Toxicol. 2005; 43(2): 105-109.

Affiliation

Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Marcel Dekker)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

15822762

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Acute poisonings are frequent causes of admission to emergency departments and these cases may have hazardous outcomes. METHODS: In the present study, medical records of 1818 poisoned patients admitted to Uludag University Medical School's Emergency Department between January 1996 and December 2001 were investigated. The age, sex, outcomes of the patients, and type of poisoning are described. RESULTS:. The mean age for females (63% of the patients) was 27 years, whilst the mean age of male patients was 31 years. The major types of poisonings were ingestions of medications (59.6%), mushrooms (3.3%), corrosives (2.5%), organophosphates (3.2%), and methyl alcohol (0.4%). Carbon monoxide accounted for 6.9% of intoxications. Approximately 65% of the patients survived, while the methyl alcohol and corrosive ingestions led to the highest fatality averages (100% and 14.8%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The demographic and diagnostic features of acute poisoning cases treated in our hospital are similar to those reported in the literature. Adults and women are in a high-risk group for acute poisonings and medicine poisoning, which is the most common type of poisoning.