Abstract

OBJECTIVE

There are many cases admitted to Emergency Departments (ED) with acute poisoning and some of them need Intensive Care Unit (ICU) monitoring. We retrospectively analyzed the hospital records of patients who were admitted to ED with poisoning. We aimed to investigate the demographic characteristics of patients, causative agents, length of intensive care unit stay, need for mechanical ventilation and renal replacement therapy and to evaluate mortality related factors.

METHODS

The patients who were admitted to our ICU with poisoning during a one-year period were analyzed retrospectively. Demographic characteristics of patients, type of causative substance, length of ICU stay, need for mechanical ventilation (MV) and renal replacement therapy (RRT) and the mortality related factors were investigated. All analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical package (SPSS version 22.0).

RESULTS

A total of 470 patients were admitted to ED’s with acute poisoning. 17 of them were admitted to our ICU. 11 were female and the mean age was 36 years. Suicide was found to be the primary cause (88%) of poisoning. Antidepressants were the most frequent causative agents. 6 patients had a history of previous psychiatric disorder. 5 patients required mechanical ventilation while 4 patients received renal replacement therapy. The mean length of stay in ICU was 29 days and mortality rate was 23,5 %. Patients’ age, need for MV and RRT and Glasgow Coma Scales (GCS) were found to be associated with mortality.

CONCLUSION

A small percentage (3.6%) of poisoning cases in ED needed ICU follow up. Antidepressants were the most common agents causing poisoning. The incidence of MV, RRT and mortality were high among patients admitted to ICU. Patients’ age, GCSs and need for MV and RRT were associated with mortality.