A prospective study of acute poisonings in Finnish hospital patients

1 We have carried out a prospective study of all adult patients presenting with acute poisoning during one month to the Helsinki University Central Hospital (Meilahti Hospital). 2 Two hundred and twenty-six cases of acute poisoning (113 males and 113 females) presented to the emergency department. Most cases in both men (66%) and women (67%) involved alcohol. As to drugs, psychotropic agents predominated in both men and women. The frequency of patient presentation peaked between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and was lowest between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. In most cases, the delay from ingestion of the poison to presentation was longer than 4 h. 3 The clinical status of the patients on arrival was generally good; more than half (55%) of them were fully awake. Serious symptoms (e.g. unconsciousness, insufficient respiration necessitating intubation, aspiration, convulsions or hypotension) occurred in 15% of the presentations. There were no fatalities. 4 One hundred and thirty-five patients (60%) received at least one 50-g dose of activated charcoal. However, charcoal was given in 86% of the cases of drug poisoning. Gastric lavage was performed in 112 cases (50%), and 106 cases (47%) involved both gastric lavage and administration of charcoal. Twenty-one patients received antidotes (flumazenil, calcium gluconate or naloxone) and three patients were hemodialysed. 5 Of the 226 cases, 142 (63%) were managed solely in the emergency department. Of the 84 cases admitted to the hospital, eight had to be managed in the intensive care unit. Almost all patients (94%) were discharged within 24 h. 6 In this survey on 226 consecutive cases of acute poisoning, about two-thirds of the cases involved alcohol, while the most common drugs taken were psychotropic agents. The poisoning was mild in the great majority of the cases. Activated charcoal was generally administered in all but trivial cases of drug poisoning.