Clinical Profile and in Hospital Outcome of Acute Poisoning Cases Admitted in Tertiary Care Hospital: A Prospective Observational Study

Abstract

Acute poisoning is a medical emergency. Data are scarce from the Indian subcontinent regarding the profile and outcome of patients presenting with acute poisoning admitted to intensive care unit (ICU). Hence, the present study was undertaken to assess the clinical profile and hospital outcome of acute poisoning cases admitted in tertiary care hospitals. A total of 148 patients with acute poisoning aged >18 years and admitted in the intensive care unit and medicine wards of tertiary care hospital during a period of 1 year from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2021, were studied. Poisoning was more common in the 21–30 years age group (42.57%) with male predominance (55.41%). Poisoning with suicidal intention constituted 81.76%: 44.59% of cases seeking medical help within 2–4 h. In 81.76% of cases, route of poisoning was oral. Organophosphorus was the most common acute poisoning (28.38%), and most common symptoms were nausea/vomiting. Complications noted were ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) (4.72%), renal failure (6.08%) and hepatic failure (2.7%). Mortality was seen in 11.49% of cases. Out of 148 cases, 121 were of suicidal poisoning, while 14 patients out of them expired so psychiatric evaluation of 107 patients can be made and out of that all patients had some underlying psychiatric illness. Patients requiring ventilatory support constituted 25.67% of cases. Clinical profile of acute poisoning depends on the nature of compound/poison, quantity of compound consumed/exposed, first aid received at the primary care level and time taken to shift the patient from primary care level to tertiary care level. In-hospital mortality mostly depends on the dedicated facilities available at the tertiary care level in addition to the factors described above for clinical profile.