Clinico-epidemiological characteristics of patients presenting with organophosphorus poisoning

Organophosphorus (OP) poisoning is a major health problem all over the world, particularly in the developing countries.

The present study aims to explore the clinical and epidemiological features found in patients presenting with OP poisoning.

A 1-year cross-sectional study was conducted on patients presenting with clinical features of OP poisoning in a tertiary care medical college.

A total of 968 patients presented during the study period. Poisoning with suicidal intent (82.02%) was more common than the accidental one (17.98%). Majority of the patients were housewives (42%) followed by farmers, shopkeepers, laborers, students. Methyl parathion was the most common poison consumed by the patients (35.74%) followed by diazinon, chlorpyriphos, dimicron. Nausea and vomiting (85.02%) was the most common symptom while miosis was the most common sign observed in 91.94% patients. A total of 56 patients of OP poisoning died (5.78%) with respiratory failure being the primary cause of death followed by CNS depression, cardiac arrest, and septicaemia.

The present study showed that majority of the patients were of young age with females outnumbering males. Poisoning with suicidal intent was more common than accidental. Nausea and vomiting was the most common symptom reported by the patients while miosis was the most common sign observed by the treating physicians of the research team.