A Study of Clinical Profile of Oleander Seed Poisoning in Adults

Deliberate self harm is on the increasing trend and poisoning with yellow oleander seed is common in our region. So our study was directed to assess the clinical profile of yellow oleander seed poisoning in adult patients. This is a prospective study conducted at the Thanjavur Medical College hospital from January 2014 to August 2014. All adult patients with yellow oleander seed poisoning were included. 49 patients with 20 male and 29 female were admitted. The mean number of seeds consumed was 4.65±2.41. 80 % of patients had gastrointestinal symptoms. Paste form is the most toxic form of ingestion, while chewed was the most common form consumed. ECG changes were noticed in 30 patients with sinus bradycardia being the most common variant. The lethal dose in our study was between 4-8 seeds. Patients who had ECG changes had significantly high potassium levels. There was no in hospital mortality in our study