DEMOGRAPHIC AND CLINICAL PROFILE OF CORROSIVE POISONING - JANUARY 2010­-DECEMBER 2010

The corrosives are the substances that cause tissue injury by chemical reaction. Due to wide spread use of these substances for house hold cleaning purposes as well as in industry there is a rising trend in patients getting admitted with corrosive ingestion either accidently or with self-harming intention. To analyze the corrosive poisoning profile, a retrospective study was conducted at Poison Control, Training and Research Centre, Rajiv Gandhi Government General hospital Madras Medical College during the period January 2010- December 2010.During the above period 182 corrosive poisoning cases were admitted which comprises of 6.8 of total admission in intensive toxicology care unit. These cases were analyzed on the basis of demographic, clinical and mortality profile. Demographic profile was analyzed with respect to age, sex, and place. Clinical profile and mortality profile were analyzed separately with reference to the parameters like type of corrosive, intention of poisoning, time window for endoscopy, presenting complaint, comorbid illness, need for assisted ventilation and surgical intervention. Mortality profile was then compared with general clinical profile and difference between them was highlighted. This will guide in future for earlier prediction of the dangerous signs and symptoms in corrosive poisoning cases and prompt action to reduce the mortality rate.