Prospective analysis of intoxicated patients developing shock and/or organ failure.

BACKGROUND: Data on intoxication patients with shock and acute organ failure is valuable for the prediction of the tailored scale prognosis of the patients in the emergency department. METHODS: : Our study was designed prospectively as a cross-sectional and observational over the course of four years. The patients over 18 years of age were included and the epidemiological data related to development of shock and acute organ failure, the treatments, and the outcome were recorded. The organic phosphate severity score was also calculated for all patients. RESULTS: A total of 89 patients with shock and/or acute organ failure 72 (80.9%) of the patients were males. Methanol (51 patients, 57.3%) was the most common cause of intoxications followed by cardiovascular agents. Thirty (33.7%) patients died despite all treatments and mortality was found to be higher in patients with hypotension (p = 0.031) at the time of admission to the emergency department and in those with a high organic phosphate poisoning severity index (p = 0.001). High levels of WBC, creatine, lactate, base excess and low bicarbonate and blood pH were associated with mortality. The discharge rates of patients who received extracorporeal treatment were statistically higher than those who did not receive this treatment (p = 0.001). DISCUSSION: The organic phosphate poisoning severity score can partially help us to predict the prognosis in all poisoning patients at the time of the first presentation. Emergency physicians may consider the development of hypotension, high creatine, lactate, base excess, low bicarbonate, and blood pH to be associated with a poor prognosis in the first hours of admission in acute poisoning patients. In these patients, it was predicted that the addition of selected extracorporeal methods without delay, in addition to the treatments that should be applied, may increase the survival rate.

Ultrasound Accelerated Thrombolysis May Be an Effective and Safe Treatment Modality for Intermediate Risk/Submassive Pulmonary Embolism.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially life-threatening condition and the fact that 90% of PE originate from lower limb veins highlights the significance of early detection and treatment of deep vein thrombosis. Massive/high risk PE involving circulatory collapse or systemic arterial hypotension is associated with an early mortality rate of approximately 50%, in part from right ventricular (RV) failure. Intermediate risk/submassive PE, on the other hand, is defined as PE-related RV dysfunction, troponin and/or B-type natriuretic peptide elevation despite normal arterial pressure. Without prompt treatment, patients with intermediate risk PE may progress to the massive category with a potentially fatal outcome. In patients with PE and right ventricular dysfunction (RVD), in hospital mortality ranges from 5% to 17%, significantly higher than in patients without RVD.

Therapeutic plasma exchange in poisoning: 8 years' experience of a university hospital.

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: This study examined the extracorporeal methods for the elimination of toxic substances in poisoned patients that are used by clinicians taking care of such patients. Here we present our experience in the use of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE). To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest number of poisoning cases ever reported in a study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study conducted at the Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, with the permission of the ethical committee of the medical faculty. The study includes patients who had undergone TPE because of poisoning between January 2007 and May 2015. We summarize the clinical data and outcomes of the patients with available files. RESULTS: A total of 36 cases among the 42 patients who underwent TPE in this 8-year period were included in the study. More than 20 identified toxic substances, most of which were pesticides, were found to be the causes of poisoning. Twenty-three healthy discharges and 12 deaths are discussed in the study. CONCLUSION: We believe that our study reports the largest ever number of poisoning cases treated with TPE in the literature. When applicable, TPE may be a promising extracorporeal elimination and treatment technique in poisoned patients when performed in selected cases.