Clinico-Epidemiological Study on Pesticide Poisoning in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Eastern Nepal

Introduction: Pesticide poisoning is a major health problem worldwide. In Nepal the most common cause is suicidal and pesticides account for more than fifty percent of cases. The objective of the study was to look in detail regarding the pesticide poisoning cases admitted at BPKIHS; their epidemiological profile, presentation, treatment and their outcome during the hospital stay. Drug therapy included specific antidotal drugs; atropine and pralidoxime (PAM) and some nonspecificdrugs: antimicrobials and sedatives. Methods: It was a retrospective study which included 2621 patients with poisoning of which 1661 cases were related to pesticides. Results: The mean age at presentation was 29 years. The mean duration of hospital stay was 6.7 days. The majority of patients 81.16% showed improvement whereas 6.6% of patients died within 24 hours of admission and 3.54% after 48 hours of admission. Among all the patients 0.5% patients were given ICU care and all others were managed in the different units of medicine ward. The total amount of atropine administered varied considerably from patient to patient, according to the need. Most of the cases were under the influence of alcohol. All the patients had a psychiatry evaluation before discharge. Conclusions: Pesticide poisoning is increasing in incidence and it is one of the preventable public health problems and includes mainly the patients’ age group 20-30 years. Due to easy availability of pesticides it is the most preferred method of suicide, the main reasons being impulsive act and increased indebtedness in the society. Keywords: pesticides; organophosphorous poisoning