A Three-Year Study on Acute Poisoning Cases Brought for Medico-Legal Autopsy in a North-Eastern City of India

Abstract

Purpose

Death due to acute poisoning is one of the significant health challenges to cope-up. It is imperative to know the death victims’ pattern due to acute poisoning to prepare the relevant preventive and remedial measures. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the pattern of the dead victims of acute poisoning in a tertiary care centre.

Materials and Methods

It is a hospital record-based study and conducted in a tertiary care centre. Descriptive statistics to study the distribution of the cases among different age groups, sex, type of poison compounds was computed and analysed using SPSS software version 20.

Results

The present study detected poisonous substances in 244 (41.8%) cases out of 584 death cases of suspected acute poisoning with the male preponderance of 62.29%. A higher incidence of acute poisoning was noticed among the young age group 21–30 years (33.6%) with 48 (31.6%) cases among males and 34 (36.9%) cases of the female. The Organophosphates (OP) was the main compound found in 151 (61.9%) fatal cases, followed by Carbamate in 45 (18.4%) cases. We also observed a maximum, 76 (36.2%) cases of suicidal victims in the age group of 21–30 years. Children and lower age group were more vulnerable to accidental poisoning as 26.5% cases of accidental death were reported in both the age group of 0–10 and 11–20 years respectively, gradually declining and practically found nil in above 60 years group. These differences of frequencies were found statistically significant (p < 0.0001), χ² = 55.1.

Conclusion

The results suggest due consideration to the young adolescents’ groups without any sexual discrimination to define guidelines for appropriate handling, storage and transportation of the poisonous compounds. Organophosphate’s involvement as the most preferred agent in acute poisoning is to be remembered to help manage poisoning cases.

Keywords:

• organophosphates
• socio-demographic variation
• nature of poisoning
• agriculture poisoning

Ethical Corrections

All data of the cases were treated with confidentiality, following the declaration of Helsinki.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the scientists at DFSL who helped us by providing reports of the samples. All departmental colleagues who helped us access the relevant medical records during the study were also acknowledged.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.