Adult Poisoning Cases in Ankara: Capital City of Turkey

Poisoning is the disruption of functions of a living organism by any agent. The aim of this study is to identify the clinical and demographic characteristics of intoxication cases admitted to the Numune Training and Research Hospital emergency department. Characteristics such as age and gender of the patients, intoxication agents, and the results (discharge, forwarding, hospitalization, death etc.) were recorded to the prepared form. Data were assessed with the SPSS 15.0 software package and expressed. Quantitative variables were summarised as mean ± standard deviation. Frequency and percent distribution were used for the evaluation of data. The chi-squared test was used for comparison of the quailtative variables. p < 0.05 was accepted significant. The mean age of the receiving 651 poisoned patients was 32.04 ± 12.24 years. Of them, 67.7% were female. The most causes of poisoning agents were a pharmaceuticals (79.4%), carbonmonoxide (8.9%) and alcohols (7.1%). Gastric lavage was performed in 76% patients. Activated charcoal was administered in 81% patients. Antidotes treatment was applied in 7.4% patients. Most patients were evaluated and then treated and discharged from the ED (91.9%).