[Acute ethanol intoxication at an emergency room]

To know the frequency of the acute ethylic intoxications in our service, as well as their epidemiologic, clinical characteristics, and associate problems.

A series of variables in patients older than 14 years were studied. These patients were assisted at the emergency room by ethylic intoxication, and they were separated in two age groups.

472 cases were assisted (0.55% of the consultation reasons). 84.1% were men and 40% < 26 years. Most of the intoxications in this age group happened during the weekends, fundamentally at night, while in the > 25 years, the weekly distribution is more homogeneous and there is a bigger number in the afternoons. The relationship with traumatic brain injury is smaller in the group of the youths. There were not significant differences in the number of traffic accidents. The percentage of admissions was 17% in the > 25 years opposite to 5% in people younger than this age. Variations with statistical significance were not obtained if we consider the number of aggressions, parasuicides, overdoses or association with other toxic substances.

The ethylic intoxications show some different characteristics depending on the age of the patient (< 26 years old vs. > 25 years old). In the young people ethylic intoxication is the consequence of a "recreational behaviour at weekend's night" fundamentally, and in the adults there is a stronger association with traumatisms and admissions and we can't say that these one are justified for a bigger incidence of traffic accidents.