Trends of Poisoning in a Tertiary Care Centre of North West Uttar Pradesh

Poisoning cases account for a considerable proportion of all the cases reported to both government and private sector casualty departments and causes considerable morbidity and mortality due to low cost and easy availability of poisons. The present study evaluates the pattern of poisoning at a tertiary care hospital in Bareilly city of North West U.P. A retrospective and prospective analysis of all poisoning cases reported to the emergency department of SRMS-IMS from Jan 2010 to Dec 2012 was done to study the pattern of poisoning. Data were collected and analyzed. A total of 178 patients (male: 100, female: 78) were included in the study. The male female ratio was 1.28:1. The types of poisons were insecticides like Organophosphorus compound, halogenated insecticides, rodenticides, petroleum products, corrosive substance, snake bite, Dhatura etc. Most of the victims (75.28%) were Hindu. Most common age group reported was between 21–30 years. Most of the cases were from summer months, which happen to be the harvesting and selling season for farmers. Fatal outcome was observed in 16.29% cases. Recent trends in our study showed that cases of unknown poisoning are on rise possibly due to industrial chemicals.