Cases of Acute Poisoning in Southeast Anatolia of Turkey

• Main Authors: Cahfer Güloğlu, Ismail Hamdi Kara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dicle University Medical School 2004-01-01
• Series: Dicle Medical Journal
• Subjects: pesticid; poisoning; suicide; and emergency service
• Online Access: http://4181.indexcopernicus.com/fulltxt.php?ICID=887917

This study was conducted to determine the biological effects of acute poisoning, nature ofagents involved and pattern of poisoning during 2000 in Diyarbakır City in Southeast AnatolianRegion of Turkey.Data from hospital records of all admissions to Emergency Department (ED) of Dicle UniversityHospital following acute poisoning collected retrospectively were analysed for the period January toDecember in 2000. Present study included 44 (25.9%) male (M) and 126 (74.1%) female (F), a total170 consecutive patients. A M/F ratio was found as 1.0/3.5 in the study.Mean age of cases was 23.3±6.3 years old; 63 (37.1%) of them were under age of 20 years oldand 147 (86.5%) of them were under age of 30 years old. Cases of intoxication have admitted insummer season (93 of 170 patients), especially in April, May and July (24, 26 and 30 patients),respectively. Sixty-two (36.5%) cases due to accidental, 108 (63.5%) cases due to suicidal goal. Thecases of suicidal purposeful intoxications were mostly determined in females (77 cases, 71.3%,p<0.05), and singles (74 cases, 68.5%, p<0.05). There were only two deaths (1.2%) among the 170admissions of acute poisonings during hospitaliztion. One of the deaths was due to pesticides; otherone was due to abuse of medical drug. According to physical examination, tachycardia (59, 34.7%),vomit history (55, 32.4%), and unconsciousness (42, 24.7%) were frequently observed; however,hypersecretion (15, 8.8%), bradycardia (5, 2.9%), convulsion (8, 4.7%), and hipertension (2, 1.2%),were seen rarely. Cases who poisoned with pesticide compared other cases have had significantlyhigher rate of convulsion (6, 10.2%), miosis (6, 10.2%), and hypersecretion (12, 20.3%) (p=0.018,p<0.0001 and p<0.0001), respectively.In our region, pesticides intoxication especially affected to young unmarried females, and mostof them resulted from suicidal purpose. The annual rate of poisoning-related ED visits and mortalitywere within the reported ranges, psychoactive agents being the most common cause of poisonings.