Assessment of the Peradeniya Organophosphorus Poisoning Scale as a Severity and Prognostic Marker in Patients With Acute Organophosphorus Poisoning Presenting to an Emergency Medicine Department

Background Organophosphorus (OP) compound poisoning is the most common toxicological medical emergency in India, where the majority of the population lives on agriculture. The Peradeniya Organophosphorus Poisoning (POP) scale can be a simple and effective system to determine the need for ventilatory support early in the course of admission. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of the clinical parameters of the POP scale in predicting the severity of organophosphorus compound poisoning, by comparing early predicted patient prognosis evaluated by the POP scale on admission with the patient outcome. Methods This was a prospective observational study of acute organophosphorus compound poisoning presenting to the emergency department of Sir Sayajirao General (SSG) Hospital and Medical College, Baroda. We included patients over 12 years of age with a history of, or symptoms suggestive of, acute OP poisoning. The patients received initial resuscitation according to airway, breathing, circulation, disability, and exposure simultaneously with decontamination and gastric lavage by Ryle’s tube. They also received the standard antidotes of atropine and pralidoxime immediately. We applied the POP scale to each patient upon admission and graded the poisoning severity as mild (a POP scale score of 0-3), moderate (4-7), or severe (8-11). This scale assessed the patients’ need for mechanical ventilation and ICU management and their final clinical outcome. Results We enrolled 60 patients in the study. Most of them were under 20 years of age, and 65% of them were male. Social laborers were the major population, and most of them had suicidal intention. Monocrotophos was the most commonly consumed OP compound. Most of the patients were brought to the hospital within two to six hours of consumption. Vomiting and profuse secretions were the primary presenting symptoms. A majority of the patients (47) fell into the mild POP scale range. None of the patients had severe poisoning. Out of 60 patients, 49 patients improved and 11 patients died. Seven patients (15%) with mild POP scale scores and four patients (31%) with moderate scores died. Overall, 61.7% of patients with mild POP scale scores and 100% of patients with moderate scores needed mechanical ventilation. Conclusion The POP scale is an effective tool to measure severity and make a prognosis in patients with acute OP compound exposure. It may be a simple, inexpensive tool that may help predict the need for ventilatory support at admission. Early identification of danger signs may help in the reduction of mortality and morbidity when resources are limited. However, we found incorporating other clinical parameters and biochemical markers provides better prognostication than using the POP scale alone.