Role of coconut oil and soda bicarbonate in gastric lavage in the management of celphos poisoning

Context: Celphos poisoning is one of the most common and lethal poison with no antidote available till now. Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of new treatment regimen and interventions to reduce the mortality from celphos poisoning. Settings and Design: A profile of 30 patients with alleged intake of celphos tablets who got admitted in intensive care unit (ICU) was studied. Materials and Methods: In all the 30 patients with alleged celphos poisoning, extensive gastric lavage was done with a mixture of coconut oil and sodium bicarbonate solution. Strict monitoring, both invasive and noninvasive was done and symptomatic/supportive treatment was carried out on a patient-to-patient basis. Statistical Analysis: At the end of the study, all the data were compiled systematically and statistical analysis was carried out using the nonparametric tests and value of P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Majority of the patients were young with a mean age of 20.14 ± 3.62 years and had good educational level. Most of the patients presented clinically with cardiovascular signs and symptoms (60%), followed by respiratory distress (13.33%) and little higher incidence of multiorgan symptomatology (16.67%). The mean stay of the patients in ICU was 5.62 ± 1.24 days and the survival rate was 40%. Conclusions: With the treatment regimen we have formulated, we were able to save 40% of our patients and recommend the use of this regimen by all the intensivists and physicians.