Assessment of Adverse Events Reported to The Poison Control and Forensic Chemistry Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

BackgroundPoisoning is a major public health threat in many countries across the globe, including Saudi Arabia. Poison control facilities help to provide immediate treatment to the patients affected by poisoning. Poisoning cases from various regions of the Kingdom are reported to the Poison Control and Forensic Chemistry Centers. AimsThis study aimed at assessment of the demographics, risk factors and management of various poisoning cases reported at the Poison Control and Forensic Chemistry Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. MethodsData was collected from the poisoning archived forms, between 01-01-2019 to 30-12-2019. A data collection sheet was designed to collect information about the region of call, age and gender of the patient, type, place, route and pattern of poisoning. All the data was analyzed through SPSS software. ResultsMost cases of intoxications were occurred and reported from the Western Region of Saudi Arabia (n=97, 38%), and were for males (n=137, 54%). The majority of poisoning cases occurred in children under 5-years of age (n=198, 78%). Poisoning cases were accidental (n=233, 92%) and intentional (n=11, 4%), and most (n=246, 96%) occurred at home. Drug poisoning was more common (n=155, 61%) than chemical poisoning (n=92, 36%). The rout of poisoning was oral in the vast majority of incidents (n=242, 94%). Intentional poisoning was more common in females (n=8, 3%). All poisoning reports initiated by physicians and other healthcare professionals (n=253, 100%), within one hour of the poisoning (n=144, 57%) and after one home (n=109, 43%). Decontamination with active charcoal (n=62, 24%) was the most common method recommended to manage intoxicated patients, followed by gastric lavage (n=9, 3.5%). ConclusionThe current study assessed the reports of adverse events in a poisoning center in Saudi Arabia, most cases were related to medicines, followed by chemicals and most occurred at home. Most of poisoning cases are unintentional and occurred at home due to ingestion of medicinal products. Therefore, awareness of parents about the potent poisons at home may help to minimize the occurrence of such adverse events.