ABSTRACT

Poisoning is animportant cause of admission to intensive care units (ICUs) and prolongs the length of stay (LOS) in the ICU. The patients whose admitted to the ICU with poisoning may require mechanical ventilation (MV). The need of prolonged MV causes a significantly longer LOS and higher mortality in the ICU. The analysis of the characteristics and outcomes of patients receiving MV after poisoning may be useful in the clinical management of these patients, allowing for better counseling of the patients and their families. The objective of this retrospective study to evaluate the relationship between demographic and etiological characteristics with need of MV in patients admitted to ICU due to poisoning.

211 patients diagnosed with poisoning were analyzed from January 2010 to December 2011. Data regarding age, gender, the time between exposure and ICU admission, type of poisoning, exposure to toxic agents, the route of exposure, a history of previous toxicity, consciousness status on arrival, the length of the ICU stay, need of MV, complications associated with MV, the Glasgow coma scale and outcome were obtained.

Of the 211 patients, 143 (67.8%) were female. The most common cause of poisoning was suicide (87.7%), and the main route of exposure was oral (93.4%). The greatest number of agents which patients were exposed was drugs. (74.4%). The most common drugs causing poisoning were antidepressants (including tricyclic antidepressants) (38.3%). The need of MV was significantly related to both gender (p=0.04) and the route of exposure (p<0.001). The need of MV was also significantly related to type of poisoning (p=0.01) and the toxic agents (p<0.001).There were very strong relationships between the drug poisoning and gender (p=0.002) and between type of poisoning and gender (p=0.006).

The present study demonstrated that there were significant relationships between the need of MV and gender, type of poisoning, the toxic agents, the route of exposure and the ICU LOS. The need of MV may lead to poor outcome as it is associated with higher incidence of ventilator related complications and longer ICU stay.