Acute poisoning in adults in the years 1996-2001 treated in the Uludag University Hospital, Marmara Region, Turkey.
BACKGROUND
Acute poisonings are frequent causes of admission to emergency departments and these cases may have hazardous outcomes.


METHODS
In the present study, medical records of 1818 poisoned patients admitted to Uludag University Medical School's Emergency Department between January 1996 and December 2001 were investigated. The age, sex, outcomes of the patients, and type of poisoning are described.


RESULTS
. The mean age for females (63% of the patients) was 27 years, whilst the mean age of male patients was 31 years. The major types of poisonings were ingestions of medications (59.6%), mushrooms (3.3%), corrosives (2.5%), organophosphates (3.2%), and methyl alcohol (0.4%). Carbon monoxide accounted for 6.9% of intoxications. Approximately 65% of the patients survived, while the methyl alcohol and corrosive ingestions led to the highest fatality averages (100% and 14.8%, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
The demographic and diagnostic features of acute poisoning cases treated in our hospital are similar to those reported in the literature. Adults and women are in a high-risk group for acute poisonings and medicine poisoning, which is the most common type of poisoning.
Akkose
Sule
S
Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey. suleakkose@yahoo.com
Bulut
Mehtap
M
Armagan
Erol
E
Cebicci
Huseyin
H
Fedakar
Recep
R
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002249:Carbon Monoxide Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D002424:Caustics / Q000506:poisoning; D062787:Drug Overdose; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; D005260:Female; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides / Q000506:poisoning; D008297:Male; D000432:Methanol / Q000506:poisoning; D008875:Middle Aged; D009145:Mushroom Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D011041:Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
D002424:Caustics; D007306:Insecticides; D000432:Methanol