A Retrospective Analysis of the Poisoning Cases Who Were Followed in Our Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Background: Poisoning is a commonly encountered and a serious acute or chronic health problem which may be fatal. Patients admitted to our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with a diagnosis of poisoning have been retrospectively analyzed in the last 3 years in order to determine the national and especially regional health policies, and to shed light on other studies. Material and Methods: All poisoning cases of ICU between March 2007 and September 2010 were evaluated regarding age, gender, type and receiving path of the poison and prognosis. Results: Forty-one of total 803 patients were poisoning cases, twenty-one of whom were female and 20 male. The mean age for the females and the males were 26 and 27 respectively. One patient (2.44%) was poisoned by carbon monoxide, I patient (2.44%) had methyl alcohol, 5 patients (12.2%) were poisoned with rat poison, 5 patients (12.2%) had heroin, 2 patients (4.88%) were poisoned with organophosphates, 26 patients (63.42%) were poisoned by medication, and 1 patient (2.44%) was poisoned by an unknown substance. Conclusion: Although the cases adopted to ICU with acute poisoning were especially young population and majority of them were poisoned with drugs, females were found out to be more when committing suicide was considered.