EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF REPORTED POISON CASES IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Background: Poisons are subtle and silent weapons, which can be easily used without violence and often without arousing suspicion. Poisoning is a medical emergency and a patient is always invariably rushed to the hospital at the earliest possible moment, irrespective of the amount and nature of poison ingested. The studies mainly focus on to assess the pattern of poisoning and risk factors of cases admitted in a tertiary care hospital. Aim: To study the epidemiology of reported poison cases in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: A prospective and retrospective study was conducted in a multi-specialty hospital for a period of 12 months. In total 100 patients were included in this, 25 were live cases, 75 cases taken from medical record department. Demographic details such as age, gender, type of poison, occupation and reason for poisoning, where documented. Results: Out of 100 patients studied, the majority of the patients were in the age group of 21-30years. In this study poisoning of female predominated over male. The present study showed that the commonest poison consumed was medicines 34 % followed by pesticides 23%. From our study majority of patients consumed the poison with suicidal intent as compared with of the patients exposed accidently. Conclusion: The study results showed that suicidal poisoning was more in female group than in male group. The mortality and morbidity due to poisoning can be reduced by conducting educational programs in rural areas and providing counseling services and poison information services to the needy people.