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Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: With the widespread availability of a vast number of chemicals and drugs, acute poisoning is a common medical emergency worldwide. In spite of the success of interventions to prevent toxic ingestions, acute poisoning continues to be an important public health problem. Because of weak r...

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Autores principales: Adinew, Getnet Mequanint, Woredekal, Asegedech Tsegaw, DeVos, Elizabeth L., Birru, Eshetie Melese, Abdulwahib, Mohammed Birhan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: African Federation for Emergency Medicine 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6234172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30456112
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.04.005
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author Adinew, Getnet Mequanint
Woredekal, Asegedech Tsegaw
DeVos, Elizabeth L.
Birru, Eshetie Melese
Abdulwahib, Mohammed Birhan
author_facet Adinew, Getnet Mequanint
Woredekal, Asegedech Tsegaw
DeVos, Elizabeth L.
Birru, Eshetie Melese
Abdulwahib, Mohammed Birhan
author_sort Adinew, Getnet Mequanint
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: With the widespread availability of a vast number of chemicals and drugs, acute poisoning is a common medical emergency worldwide. In spite of the success of interventions to prevent toxic ingestions, acute poisoning continues to be an important public health problem. Because of weak regulations and limited health care services in developing countries, adverse outcomes from poisoning are more prevalent than in the developed world. Due to the limited Ethiopian literature on this topic, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate and report poisoning cases, their management and outcome in northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of all poisoning cases admitted and managed in the emergency centres of Gondar Teaching Referral Hospital and Metema and Debark district hospitals, from September 2010 to December 2014. Data was collected through retrospective chart review of patients who were admitted due to poisoning. RESULTS: There were 543 registered poisoning cases listed in the registry during the study period, of which 344 cases (63.4%) had complete data and were included in the final analysis. There were 48,619 emergency centre visits during the study period, with poisoning cases accounting for 1.1%. Females (60%) were predominant among intentional as well as unintentional poisoning cases. Patients between 15 and 24 years of age accounted for 55% of the cases. Patients poisoned with organophosphate and bleaching agents accounted for 35% and 25%, respectively. Among the poisoning patients, 74% were treated with decontamination, while those exposed to organophosphate were treated with atropine 45.5% (55/121) of the time. DISCUSSION: Young females comprise a group at increased risk for suicidal poisonings. As a developing nation, pesticide and bleaching agents remain a significant cause of acute poisonings in Ethiopia. Intentional poisoning remains the most significant identified cause of poisoning overall.
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spelling pubmed-62341722018-11-19 Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia Adinew, Getnet Mequanint Woredekal, Asegedech Tsegaw DeVos, Elizabeth L. Birru, Eshetie Melese Abdulwahib, Mohammed Birhan Afr J Emerg Med Original Research INTRODUCTION: With the widespread availability of a vast number of chemicals and drugs, acute poisoning is a common medical emergency worldwide. In spite of the success of interventions to prevent toxic ingestions, acute poisoning continues to be an important public health problem. Because of weak regulations and limited health care services in developing countries, adverse outcomes from poisoning are more prevalent than in the developed world. Due to the limited Ethiopian literature on this topic, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate and report poisoning cases, their management and outcome in northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of all poisoning cases admitted and managed in the emergency centres of Gondar Teaching Referral Hospital and Metema and Debark district hospitals, from September 2010 to December 2014. Data was collected through retrospective chart review of patients who were admitted due to poisoning. RESULTS: There were 543 registered poisoning cases listed in the registry during the study period, of which 344 cases (63.4%) had complete data and were included in the final analysis. There were 48,619 emergency centre visits during the study period, with poisoning cases accounting for 1.1%. Females (60%) were predominant among intentional as well as unintentional poisoning cases. Patients between 15 and 24 years of age accounted for 55% of the cases. Patients poisoned with organophosphate and bleaching agents accounted for 35% and 25%, respectively. Among the poisoning patients, 74% were treated with decontamination, while those exposed to organophosphate were treated with atropine 45.5% (55/121) of the time. DISCUSSION: Young females comprise a group at increased risk for suicidal poisonings. As a developing nation, pesticide and bleaching agents remain a significant cause of acute poisonings in Ethiopia. Intentional poisoning remains the most significant identified cause of poisoning overall. African Federation for Emergency Medicine 2017-06 2017-04-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6234172/ /pubmed/30456112 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.04.005 Text en © 2017 African Federation for Emergency Medicine. Publishing services provided by Elsevier B.V. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Original Research
Adinew, Getnet Mequanint
Woredekal, Asegedech Tsegaw
DeVos, Elizabeth L.
Birru, Eshetie Melese
Abdulwahib, Mohammed Birhan
Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia
title Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia
title_full Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia
title_fullStr Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia
title_short Poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest Ethiopia
title_sort poisoning cases and their management in emergency centres of government hospitals in northwest ethiopia
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6234172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30456112
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.04.005
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