Background: Poisoning is being more frequently encountered nowadays, both globally and locally. Knowing what poisons are involved more commonly and what kind of victims present with this condition, helps the clinicians to manage and treat the patients in a better manner and lessens the mortality rates.
Objectives: To determine the age group and gender most vulnerable to fatal poisoning. To identify the agent used for poisoning.
Material & Methods: The descriptive retrospective study was carried out King Edward Medical University, Lahore and reviewed the autopsy records of victims of fatal poisoning from January 2018 to December 2019. The data was analyzed using the SPSS software.
Results: In the total 67 cases of poisoning that were studied, majority of the victims were males (85.07%).Most of the cases fell in the 21-30 years age group (53.73%), followed by the 31-40 years age group (23.88%).The overall mean age of the victims was calculated to be 32.597 years. Morphine was found to be the toxic agent in most cases (32 cases; 47.76%), followed by Dextromethorphan (26 cases; 38.80%) and codeine (19 cases; 28.35%).
Conclusions: Poisoning is a serious issue that is more frequently encountered in our young adult and male population. Since narcotics were found in major share of the cases, measures should be taken for more strict control.
Keywords: poisoning, autopsy, mortality, drug toxicity
Acute lethal poisonings in children: a 10-year retrospective study of the Moscow Region, Russia
