Abstract

Background:
Organophosphorus is an insecticidal poison. Acute organophosphorus poisoning in humans is common in the rural population of the developing world. Proper diagnosis and suitable management are always important to save a life in those cases. A very limited number of drugs are available to treat such type of poisoning incidents. The purpose of this study was to determine the pharmacotherapy and outcome of acute organophosphorus poisoning cases.

Aim:
To determine the pharmacotherapy of acute organophosphorus poisoning and to analyze the pharmacotherapy respective to the poisoning cases and outcome

Methods:
A retrospective observational study was conducted for a one-year duration after getting approval from the institutional ethical committee. Patients of either sex with acute organophosphorus poisoning were collected from the records of the medical emergency department of the hospital with the details of poisoning, signs and symptoms of poisoning, pharmacotherapy, duration of hospital stay, and outcome. The analysis was done with the help of Microsoft Excel software (Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Excel 2019).

Results:
We got a total of 21 acute organophosphorus poisoning cases, where 10 (47.61%) patients were male and 11 (52.38%) patients were female. During the management, 18 different types of drugs were used, where atropine (90%) was the most common drug followed by ceftriaxone (57%) and Pralidoxime (57%). The most common signs and symptoms were vomiting (81%), pain in epigastrium (38%), drowsiness (28%) and salivation (23%). 17 patients (81%) of the total cases survived, while 4 patients (19%) expired during the management.

Conclusion:
Atropine was the most common drug used in the management of acute organophosphorus poisoning. Signs and symptoms related to the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal systems were common and the average duration of hospital stay was four days.

Key words: Atropine, Ceftriaxone, Salivation, Vitamin B12, Vomiting