[Antidotes availability in Emergency Departments of the Italian National Health System and development of a national data-bank on antidotes].
The availability of antidotes in Italian hospitals has been evaluated through the answers to a specific questionnaire sent to all Italian Emergency Departments, Intensive Care Units, 118 emergency response system, and Poison Centres. Five Poison Centres and, approximately, the 30% of the Emergency Departments and Intensive Care Units of all Italian emergency hospitals answered to the questionnaire. The results point out an insufficient availability of antidotes in the Italian emergency hospitals, with an almost total absence of those necessary for the treatment of less frequent and less known poisonings (e.g. digoxin, industrial agents), also when the antidote is a lifesaving drug. To improve the antidotes availability for the toxicological emergencies and to facilitate its supplying, a "national antidotes data-base" (BaNdA) has been realized, freely available to the hospital services which register themselves and make their antidotes stockpile available.
Locatelli
Carlo
C
Centro Antiveleni di Pavia e Centro Nazionale di Informazione Tossicologica,Servizio di Tossicologia, Istituto Scientifico di Pavia, IRCCS Fondazione Maugeri Clinica del Lavoro e della Riabilitazione e Università degli Studi, Pavia. clocatelli@fsm.it
Petrolini
Valeria
V
Lonati
Davide
D
Butera
Raffaella
R
Bove
Angelo
A
Mela
Lidia
L
Manzo
Luigi
L
D000931:Antidotes / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D003625:Data Collection; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D011039:Poison Control Centers; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000931:Antidotes