1887
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Qatar Medical Journal
  4. Volume 2020, Issue 3
  5. Article
Volume 2020, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0253-8253
  • EISSN: 2227-0426

Abstract

The State of Qatar, in recent decades, underwent rapid, and substantial population growth. The country's emergency medicine (EM) needs are met by government-operated facilities of the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), which see virtually all acute-care cases in adults and children. In 2017, emergency departments (ED) established the Medical Toxicology Consulting Service (MTCS). This report aims to outline the MTCS's initial 100 cases’ experience and report salient findings that can help ongoing national strategies in meeting Qatar's medical toxicology needs. The study setting is Qatar, and the clinical base for the MTCS was the country's sole level I center, Hamad General Hospital. The MTCS group is composed of six physicians, all with advanced training in medical toxicology. The study group is composed of the first 100 consecutive cases of the MTCS registry. Registry entry was triggered by in-person consultation, telephone consultation, or identification of cases by daily MTCS rounder surveillance of the ED's electronic tracking board. The MTCS institution identified a significant number of medical toxicology cases within the national hospital system. The trends of poisoning in this study showed a median age of 30 years (range 1–81 years, IQR 22–36 years). Fourteen patients were < 18 years old. The median interval between exposure and ED presentation was 2 hours, with a range of 15 minutes to 24 hours (IQR 1–3 hours). Most patients (71%, 95% CI, 51%–80%) were symptomatic because they were exposed. The MTCS recommended therapeutic intervention in over a third of cases (36%, 95% CI, 27%–46%). Decontamination procedures were ordered in 8% of cases (95% CI, 4%–15%) and specific therapies recommended in 13 cases (13%, 95% CI, 7%–21%). The study highlighted that the availability of experts in medical toxicology, such as with a poison center or toxicology consultation service, results in significant resource conservation in the management of poisoned patients.

© 2020 Elmoheen, AlEssai, Salem, Thomas, licensee HBKU Press.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2020.44
2021-01-21
2024-04-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/qmj/2020/3/qmj.2020.44.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2020.44&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Hahn A, Begemann K. Giftinformationszentren in Deutschland – Historie, Arbeitsweise und Bedeutung [Poison centres in Germany-history, function, and relevance]. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2019; 62:(11):1304-1312.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bentur Y, Obchinikov ND, Cahana A, Kovler N, Bloom-Krasik A, Lavon O, et al. Pediatric poisonings in Israel: National Poison Center data. Isr Med Assoc J. 2010; 12:(9):554-559.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Dallmann R, Okyar A, Lévi F. Dosing-Time Makes the Poison: Circadian Regulation and Pharmacotherapy. Trends Mol Med. 2016; 22:(5):430-445.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Khudair IF, Jassim Z, Hanssens Y, Alsaad WA. Characteristics and determinants of adult patients with acute poisoning attending the accident and emergency department of a teaching hospital in Qatar. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2013; 32:(9):921-929.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Read JG, Varughese S, Cameron PA. Determinants of non-urgent Emergency Department attendance among females in Qatar. Qatar Med J. 2014; 2014:(2):98-105. Published 2014 Dec 9.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Statistics 2012, Hamad General Hospital Emergency Department.
  7. Hitti E, El Zahran T, Hamade H, Kaddoura R, Mneimneh Z, Morgan BW, Kazzi Z. Toxicological exposures reported to a telephonic consultation service at a tertiary care hospital in Lebanon. Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2020 Jan 14:1-7.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Arciaga GJ, Tan HH, Kuan KK, Mong RP, Kant A. A 24/7 hospital toxicology service: experience of a new start-up. Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare. 2018;27:223-228.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Law, RK, Sheikh S, Bronstein A, Thomas R, Spillar HA, Schier JG. Incidents of potential public health significance identified during national surveillance of US poison center data (2008-2012). Clin Toxicol (Phila) 2014; 52: 958-963.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Wolkin AF, Martin CA, Law RK, Schier JG, Bronstein AC. Using poison center data for national public health surveillance for chemical and poison exposure and associated illness. Ann Emerg Med 2011; 59: 56-61.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Gopalan D, Gopalan Y, Robertson WO. Implementation of Toxicall: impact on documentation. Vet Hum Toxicol 2001; 43: 45.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Zelner I, Matlow J, Hutson JR, Wax P, Koren G, Brent J, Finkelstein Y, Consortium Toxicology Investigators. Acute poisoning during pregnancy: observation from the Toxicology Investigators Consortium. J Med Toxicol 2015; 11: 301-308.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Mowry JB, Spyker DA, Brooks DE, Zimmerman A, Schauben JL. 2015 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS): 33rd Annual Report. Clin Toxicol (Phila) 2016; 54: 924-1109.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Woo SH, Lee WJ, Jeong WJ, Kyong YY, Choi SM. Blood alcohol concentration and self-reported alcohol ingestion in acute poisoned patients who visited an emertgency department. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med 2013; 21: 24.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Lee J, Min S, Ahn JS, Kim H, Cha YS, Oh E, et al. Identifying alcohol problems among suicide attempters visiting the emergency department. BMC Psychiatry. 2019; 19:(1):350. Published 2019 Nov 8.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Hollander JE, McCracken G, Johnson S, Valentine SM, Shih RD. Emergency department observation of poisoned patients: how long is necessary? Acad Emerg Med 1999; 6: 887-894.
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2020.44
Loading
The establishment of a medical toxicology consulting service for advancing care of poisoning and overdose in Qatar
Qatar Medical Journal 2020, 44 (2021); https://doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2020.44
/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2020.44
/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2020.44
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error