Objective: Intoxications occurs generally accidentally, due to suicide attempts or related to drug abuse. We aimed to analyze intoxicated patients admitted to our intensive care unit (ICU) during three years period.
Materials and methods: Between 2007 and 2009, 66 ICU patients treated due to intoxication were retrospectively analyzed considering demographic variables, active ingredient associated with intoxication, hospital stay and ventilation time.
Results: There were 43 women and 23 men. The mean age of cases was 24,92±10,26 years and 11 of them were ≤14 years old. The mean hospitalization time of cases was 2,48±0,76 days. The mechanical ventilation was applied to 8 of cases with a mean mechanical ventilation time of 2,28±1,58 days. One of the cases died on the 3rd day of hospitalization and other 65 cases were uneventfully discharged. Hemodiafiltration was applied in two cases intoxicated due of whom one was intoxicated by fungi and the other was intoxicated with methyl alcohol. Intoxication cases were 15% all subjects treated in ICU during three years period. In 45% of patients, an antidepressant medication was found to be associated with suicide attempts and amitriptyline (63%) was the most commonly used.
Conclusion: Good prognosis and the low mortality rate were supposed to be related to young age and healthy condition of the patients in addition to low dosage of the medicine-below the toxic level- being conscious and adequate respiratory functions at fist admission. We concluded that both marketing control necessity of control over, sales of amitriptyline, which is presently available without prescription and in the major intoxication group, is as important as treatment on time.
Key words: Intensive care unit, intoxication, antidepressant use
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