Retrospective Investigation of Treatment Protocols for Drug Poisonings Admitted to Emergency Department

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the demographic and etiologic features of acute poisoning cases, the toxic substances which cause the poisonings and their properties, laboratory findings and clinical features retrospectively and to show what could be the precautions to be taken. Patients and Methods: Total of 483 patients, who were admitted to emergency department with drug poisoning within 3 years and whose information was available were taken into this retrospective study. The patients’ age, sex, date of admission to hospital, duration of hospitalization in emergency department and intensive care unit, clinical outcomes, agents and amounts of drugs taken, applied antidote and extracorporeal treatments, laboratory values of cases were examined. Results: 179 (37,1%) of the cases were followed up for an average of 3,21 ± 4,5 days in the intensive care unit and 304 (62,9%) patients were followed up for an average of 2,1 ± 2 days in the observation unit of the emergency department. When the lipophilicity of poisoning drugs were examined, in 191 (39.5%) patients only lipophilic, in 100 (20.7%) patients lipophilic and additional substance, in 83 (17.2%) patients only hydrophilic and in 109 (22.6%) patients hydrophilic drug and additional substance was found. Extracorporeal treatment was applied to 14 patients. Our mortality rate was found 0.62%. Conclusion: Early intervention in poisonings is life-saving. Supportive therapies, antidotes and extracorporal techniques may reduce mortality, but toxicological guidelines may be needed to guide clinicians in more extensive studies