A Study of medicinal poisoning cases admitted to national poisoning center, Kasralainy teaching hospital in Cairo

Objectives: There is a necessity to identify the specific therapeutic drugs most frequently responsible for the acute medicinal poisoning to take up appropriate preventive efforts and management.
Methods: This study includes all cases of medicinal poisoning exposures (7282 cases) presented to the emergency department of the national poisoning center, Cairo University, during the period January 2016 to December 2016. The data were statistically analyzed to assess a correlation for a gender, age, and most frequently agents.
Results: Therapeutic drugs (68%) were the most common cause of poisoning. It was found that 53 % of medicinal poisoning patients were adults. Accidental drug agents poisoning in children younger than 4 years represented 20 % of the medicinal poisoning cases. The medicinal poisoning distributed as females (74%) and males (26%). Detailed information on categories of pharmaceutical causing medicinal poisonings was presented. Paracetamol (9.6%), nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs (9.6%) and sedatives/ hypnotics (10.7%) were the most common pharmaceutical poisons.
Conclusion: Female gender and young age patients are most risk poisoning factors. The majority of poisonings is intentional poisoning in female adults. An important concern should be raised toward availability of prescription medications within the reach of children.