Retrospective Analysis of Intoxication Cases in the ICU

Abstract

Aim: In this study, we aimed to analyse the epidemiological and demographic features, prognosis and length of stay of patients admitted to the hospital ICU with poisoning over a two-year period. Materials and Methods: Patients accepted to the ICU with poisoning from 1 January, 2008-1 January, 2011 were evaluated according to their demographic characteristics, ethology, admission time to emergency service and length of stay in the ICU. Results: Seventy-six (70.4%) of 108 patients who were accepted to the ICU with poisoning were female and 32 (29.6%) were male. The mean age was 27.9 years. Eightyseven percent of all patients were drug overdoses as suicide attempts; 64.90% of these patients took multiple drugs and 35.10% took one kind of drug. The most frequent drug combination were antidepressants and NSAIDs. Four of the patients were exposed to carbon monoxide, five to mushrooms, three to insecticides, one to methanol and there was one case of honey intoxication. The mean admission time to the emergency department was 4.4 hours, while the mean time for ICU admission was 2.4 hours. The mean duration of stay in the ICU was 2.7 days. Antidotes were used in 100 patients, six patients were intubated and one patient died. The mortality rate was 0.92%. Conclusion: Cases of poisoning admitted to the ICU with a drug overdose as a suicide attempt were mostly young women. The most common agents were NSAIDs and antidepressants. With this retrospective study, we determined the patient profile for intoxication cases in our ICU and also we have a chance of self-evaluation. (Yoğun Bakım Derg 2011; 3: 59-62)

Evaluation of intoxicated patients hospitalized in a newly-opened level two pediatric intensive care unit

“…The lenghts of stay in intensive care unit were found to be similar to the literature in this study (12,26,27). No patient was lost.…”

“…Again, Gündüz et al (13) found that 77% of intoxication cases related with suicide attempt were female in their study. Since the data related with patients aged up to 18 years were included in this study, it was found that the intoxication cases related with suicide attempt clustered in the age group of 14-18 years similar to the results of Özayar et al (12) and the girls in this age group who were intoxicated had ingested a substance to commit suicide.…”

“…Easy access to these drugs should be prevented by legal arrangements, families should be educated about drugs and their potential harms and the importance of keeping drugs out of reach of children should be emphasized. In the study of Özayar et al (12), it was reported similarly that antidepressants were in the first order among drug intoxications with a rate of 31.9% and this was followed by analgesics with a rate of 17.02%. When the literature was examined, it was found that analgesics in some studies and antidepressants in some others were in the first order (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21).…”

“…In the study of Özayar et al (12), the mean time of presentation to emergency department was reported to be 4.4 hours. Parents should be educated to shorten the time of presentation to emergency department, because the importance of urgent intervention in acute intoxications is clear.…”

“…In addition, 26,8% of our patients had been referred from other healthcare institutions and this rate is substantially high for a unit with six beds. In the study conducted by Özayar et al (12) in 2011, it was reported that 74,4% of intoxication cases related with suicide attempt were female and these cases clustered in the period of adolescence. Again, Gündüz et al (13) found that 77% of intoxication cases related with suicide attempt were female in their study.…”