Retrospective analysis of acute intoxication cases in the intensive care unit: a 5-year single-center study

Aims: Our study aimed to retrospectively analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with acute drug intoxication admitted to the intensive care unit for follow-up and treatment. Methods: The records of the patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit of Muş State Hospital with the diagnosis of acute intoxication between 01/01/2020 and 01/06/2024 were scanned from the hospital data system. Results: Of the 177 patients, 53% were 18-34 years old, and 109 (61.5%) were female. The mean length of stay in the ICU was 2.18 ± 0.51 days. Suicide cases were 71.7%, accidental intoxication was 22.1%, and intentional/recreational use was 6.2%. Single drug ingestion was 29.1%, two drug ingestion 20.1%, more than two drug ingestion 14.0%, alcohol 3.4%, mushrooms 5.0%, rat poison 2.2%, pesticides 4.5%, carbon monoxide (CO) 9.5%, street drugs 2.8%, scorpion/snake bites 3.4%, food intoxication 6.1%. The most commonly used medications were antidepressants (27.2%), acetaminophen/NSAIDs/analgesics (20.2%), and antipsychotics (18.5%). While 89.3% of the patients were discharged, 4.5% were referred to an external center, 5.6% refused treatment, and 0.6% were discharged. Acute intoxication cases were most common in summer (32.9%). Conclusion: Acute intoxications occurred mostly in young female patients with suicidal intent and during the summer months. We found that antidepressants were the most commonly used drugs in intoxication cases. Most intoxications were caused by the ingestion of two or more than two drugs.