Abstract

Dr. Bareera Ajmal*, Dr. Muhammad Talha Shabbir and Dr. Muhammad Shahzad

ABSTRACT

Background: Objective: The aim of our study is to evaluate the pattern, demographics, etiologies, survival and mortality of acute poisoning at a tertiary care center in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab. Periodic epidemiological studies are necessary to understand the pattern of poisoning in each region. Methodology: It is a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Duration of study was 6 months from August 2017 to January 2018. Non-probability random sampling technique was used to enroll cases for this study. The data was collected from patient case sheets using data collection forms. The variables e.g. Gender, age and outcome was presented as frequencies and percentage. Results: A total of 122 patients were included in the study and of those Patients were females 77 (63.1%) and 45 (36.8%). The male/female ratio was 1:1.7 and the mean age of the patients was 30.4±13.75 years. The most common age group presented with account poisoning was 15-30 years with 49/122 patients. The analyses showed that in 28 patients the cause of poisoning was paraphenylene diamine, organophosphates in 22 patients, Aluminum phosphide in 12 patients, in 16 patients drugs, opioids in 8 patients and in 18 patients the cause of poisoning remained unknown. Overall survival rate was 79.5% and mortality rate was 25%. This high mortality rate was mainly due to poor prognosis of Aluminum phosphide poisoning (100% mortality among 12 patients). Out of 122 cases, 50% were married. Level of education among 122 poisoning cases was very low, 41 were illiterate, 27 primary education and only 23 patients were graduated. According to mode of poisoning, 41 were accidental cases, 58 suicidal, 32 homicidal and 18 stupefying. Most of the patients were young female students and farmers. Conclusion: It has been clear that there is no doubt in increase in the incidence of the poisoning cases. According to the results of our study, the most common agents of suicide used in our region and those who were reported at our setup were paraphenylene diamine (kala pathar), pesticide, wheat pill and benzodiazepine. Most attempts were to cause deliberate harm to self, and most common in the younger patients. Female patients were more as compared to male. It is recommended that preventive measures and psychological counseling to be done of these patients.