RESUMO
Objective To study the epidemiological characteristics of the acute toxicosis cases in a general hospital of a metropolis. Methods The prospective study was performed from Jan. 1st, 2005 to Dec. 31st, 2006 in acute toxicosis patients admitted during that period. The data analyzed included sex, age, occupation, onset time, poisoning cause, variety of poisons, way of poisoning, emergency diagnosis, emergency treatment, etc. Results There were 315 poisoning patients treated during the study period, accounting for 2.33‰ of the total patients visiting in the emergency department. Among these poisoning patients, the sex ratio (males vs females) was 1∶0.84. The age of most of the patients ranged from 20 to 29 (35.9%) years old. Alcohol was the major cause of poisoning (38.4%), followed in order by poisoning due to drugs (20.6%), food poisoning (18.1%), chemical poisoning (10.2%) and pesticide poisoning (5.7%). There was predominant time of the occurrence of poisoning in a year, but it was more frequent in January, February, June, July, November and December. 85.1% of patients were poisoned by oral route. The occupation of patients was mainly technical personnel (21.0%), followed in order by farmers and the laborers, self-employed businessmen, persons taking care of household chores and the unemployed, etc. 98.1% of patients survived in the hospital. Mortality rate was 1.9%. Conclusions Young persons and technical personnel constitute the high-risk group of patients with poisoning. The main poisons were alcohol, drugs, food and other chemical poisons. The main route of poison intake was the digestive tract. There is no obvious seasonal regularity.
