Abstract

Acute poisoning with agricultural pesticides is an emerging global public health problem particularly in developing countries like India. Among the acute poisoning, organophosphorus poisoning (OP) is the most common and responsible for majority of deaths. In the present study, we aimed to correlate the incidence of acute OP poisoning with the type of pesticides, its clinical characteristics and quality of management provided with subsequent outcomes in the patients. A prospective study was conducted with OP poisoning patients admitted to our emergency department between January 2008 and 2009. Information regarding the age, sex, occupation, type of agent, route of poisoning, clinical, laboratory findings, type of management and subsequent outcomes were recorded from the patient medical records. During the study period, 100 patients were followed admitted in the emergency ward with acute OP poisoning. The most predominant of the affected age groups was 21-30 years (60.5%). The most common reason for poisoning was attempted suicide (98%). The most common OP compounds exposed were methyl parathion and Quinolophos. The most frequent clinical signs were salivation, miosis, fasciculations, respiratory system findings, tachycardia, and hypertension. The total mortality rate of the study population was found to be 25%. Medical management mainly involved administration of pralidoxime and atropine along with supportive management. There was always correlation with type of compound, pre-hospitalization period and the type of management may be useful for preventing the mortality rate in developing countries like India.

Key words: Organophosphorus poisoning, management, pralidoxime, developing country, incidence.