Initial Management of Ingestions of Toxic Substances

THE total number of patients who present at emergency departments because of drug overdose is difficult to ascertain, but in many facilities it is inordinately high. In one urban hospital, for example, overdoses and other drug-related emergencies are responsible for 38 percent of visits to the emergency department.1 Toxicologic emergencies may in fact constitute a public health crisis.1 In 1990 the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) documented 1,713,465 reports of human exposure to toxins that resulted in consultations with a poison center; 10 percent of these exposures were considered intentional.2 These data do not include drug overdoses that . . .