ABSTRACT

This retrospective study on the acute intoxication cases registered at the Acıbadem Kadıköy Hospital between January 2005 and December 2011 was performed to find out the number and types of poisoning cases treated.

Their distribution according to patient’s sex and age, chronology, type of toxic agents involved, intentionality, history, symptoms, clinical development, treatment and toxicological analysis used for diagnosis were evaluated.

Data from a total of 128 patients with a mean age of 30.29±14.95 years (77% women) were included. The highest rates of poisoning were recorded on the months December, January, June. Based on the examination on toxic intakes, it was found that the most frequent toxic agent is antidepressants with 101 occurrences (78%). Ethyl alcohol overdose counts as the second with 14% appearing at mostly high level alcohol addicted male patients. It has been observed that 84% of the incidents are suicidal. The implementation of general intensive care was discussed in the case study which indicates a mortality rate of 0.7%.

The results illustrate that social factors have impact on the cause and source of poisoning and epidemiologic surveys are important to cure the acute poisoning cases.

Keywords: Poisoning, toxic agent