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Abstract
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INTRODUCTION: Poisoning is a critical worldwide problem, having been reported in countries across the continent [1]. A significant number of emergency room visits are due to poisonings and drug overdose. Poisonings is a major cause of the increase in morbidity and mortality [2] of adults. Ingestion of different poisons can intentional or accidental. Poisoning can occur following ingestion, inhalational, or sometimes snuffing of drugs. Regardless of the method of poisoning , it usually leads to catastrophic outcomes.
Study population:Any patient aged more than 15 years, who presented to the Emergency Department (ED) of King Saud Medical City (KSMC). Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a drug overdose, chemical ingestion/inhalation,poisoning or alcohol intoxication was recruited for this study.
Methods: A study of all the patients that presented to our hospital from the period of January 2020 until September, 2020 was recruited for this horizontal study. Initial data was collected manually. An online Excel sheet was created, and the following parameters were collected; age, gender, and nationality, information regarding the ingested/inhaled substance, patients' signs, and symptoms upon presentation to the Emergency room, and various laboratory tests.Patients were followed till they were in the hospital and finally disposed. Statistical analysis was then performed on the collected data.
Results:Most of the patients (65.7%) were males. (69.4 %) were Saudi nationals with a mean age of 33-years. The most common presenting symptom is decreased level of consciousness (35 cases). Paracetamol overdose accounted for 12% of the cases, alcohol accounted for 10.2%. More than 50% of our patients had mixed drug poisoning or unidentifiable poison. The maximum reading for blood pressure was 221/149 mmHg among the benzodiazepine overdose group. The respiratory rate was within the normal limit in all patients.Mortaliyu was below 1%.
Conclusion: Drug overdose is a common cause of emergency room visits and hospital admission. Paracetamol was the commonest cause of identifiable drug overdose, followed by Alcohol ingestion. But mixed poisoning involving mutiple drugs were quite common these days. Outcome was generally good with just less than 1% mortality.
Language: en |