[Poisoning and drug emergency in practice].
Intoxicated patients make up 5-10% of all patients seen at emergency departments. The management of these patients is not always simple. Many of them are seen after ingestions of relatively non-toxic substances that require minimal medical care, intentional poisoning however often requires the highest standards of medical and nursing care and therefore the admission to an emergency department is mandatory. At admission, the involved substances are often not known since some of the patients are comatose. In such cases, the information from relatives and friends can be very crucial but to get hold of these sometimes essential "hints" is not always easy. Knowledge of the specific toxic agent allows the physician to plan a rational approach to the definitive management of the intoxicated patient after the vital functions have been stabilised. In some cases, very rare intoxications but with typical clinical signs do occur (e.g scromboid fish poisoning, coprinus-syndrome), which needs special diagnostic and therapeutic steps and a great deal of clinical experience. In most cases it is preferable to contact the Poison Control Center for additional advice.
Notfallzentrum, Inselspital, Bern. hanspeter.kohler@insel.ch
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D000208:Acute Disease; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D004630:Emergencies; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011041:Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D013557:Switzerland