Poisoning deaths at a Medical college in Rural Area of Northern India: A Five-year Retrospective Autopsy-based Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37506/prx8rh41Abstract
One of the most important issues facing public health is mortality after acute poisoning. The current study intends to evaluate the trends in poisoning-related deaths in a tertiary care facility and investigate the results of autopsies on these deaths. This retrospective study, which is based on autopsies, was carried out with institutional ethical committee approval. Version 20 of the SPSS software was used to evaluate and analyze descriptive data in order to investigate the distribution of cases among various age groups, genders, and toxic chemical kinds. A total of 94 cases were recorded. The majority were young adults of 21-30 years (36.2%). Males were predominantly involved (58.5%). A majority (91.5%) were living in the rural areas. Most of the patients were hospitalized (72.3%). 98.9% of the dead bodies showed no sign of decomposition but showed signs of cyanosis. Congested gastric mucosa was seen in 37.2% of the cases. Also, 37.2% of the cases showed congested gastric mucosa with a garlicky smell. In most cases, the poisonous compound was aluminum phosphide (70.2%). Suicidal deaths contributed to the higher frequency of the cases (91.5%). The findings imply that recommendations for the proper handling, storage, transportation, and selling of poisonous compounds should be defined while taking into account the groups of young teenagers without considering their sexual orientation.
References
Kannan K. Toxicology. In: Modi A Textbook of Medical
Jurisprudence and Toxicology. 26th ed, Gurgaon, India,
, Lexis Nexis (A Division of RELX India Pvt Ltd);
: 13.
Dikshit PC. General Toxicology. In: Textbook Of
Forensic Medicine And Toxicology Principles And
Practice. 2nd ed, New Delhi, India: Peepee Publishers
And Distributors (P) Ltd; 2013: 438-9.
Bhowmick K, Ghosh B, Pain S.A Study on Deliberately
Self-Poisoned In-Hospital Patients in a Tertiary Health
Care Center in Northeast India: A Cross-Sectional
Review. J Emerg Med. 2019;56(5):512-18.
Prajapati T, Prajapati K, Tandon NR, Merchant S. A
study of acute poisoning cases excluding animal bites
at Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad. J Indian Acad Forensic
Med. 2013;35(2):120-2
Curran WJ. The Medico-legal autopsy and Medicolegal
investigation. Bull N Y Acad Med. 1971;47(7):766–75.
ME Bansude, Kachare RV, Dode CR. Trends of
unnatural deaths in latur district of Maharashtra.
Journal Forensic Med. 2012;21(2):7–9.
Zhao CJ, Dang XB, Su XL, Bai J, Ma LY. Epidemiology
of Suicide and Associated Socio-Demographic Factors
in Emergency Department Patients in 7 General
Hospitals in Northwestern China. Med Sci Monit.
;21:2743-9.
Pan AK, Malle AK, Hamza NC, Das A. Profile Of
Fatal Poisoning In Autopsy Cases At A Tertiary
Care Hospital In Port Blair (Andaman And Nicobar
Islands): A Seven-Year Retrospective Study. J Forensic
Med Toxicol. 2024;41(2):172-8.
Dash SK, Aluri SR, Mohanty MK, Patnaik KK,
Mohanty S. Sociodemographic profile of poisoning
cases. J Indian Acad Forensic Med. 2005;27:133–8.
Chatterjee S, Verma VK, Hazra A, Pal J. An
observational study on acute poisoning in a tertiary
care hospital in West Bengal, India. Perspect Clin Res.
;11(2):75-80.
Mehrpour O, Akbari A, Jahani F, Amirabadizadeh A,
Allahyari E, Mansouri B, Ng PC. Epidemiological and
clinical profiles of acute poisoning in patients admitted
to the intensive care unit in eastern Iran (2010 to 2017).
BMC Emerg Med. 2018 19;18(1):30.
Datir SB, Petkar M, Farooqui JM, Makhani CS, Hussaini
SN, Chavan KD, Bangal RS, Datir S, Center P, Farooqui
J, Hussaini SN. Study of outcome in acute poisoning
cases in rural region of Western Maharashtra. J
Forensic Leg Med Title. 2015;24:1-7.
Job C: A retrospective study of poisoning cases in
Thrissur district of Kerala for the year 1995. Journal of
Indian Society of Toxicology. 2009;5(1):23-27
Parekh U, Gupta S. Epidemio-toxicological profile of
poisoning cases-A five years retrospective study. J
Forensic Leg Med. 2019 1;65:124-32.
Singh SP, Aggarwal AD, Oberoi SS, Aggarwal KK,
Thind AS, Bhullar DS, Walia DS, Chahal PS. Study
of poisoning trends in north India–a perspective in
relation to world statistics. Forensic Leg Med. 2013
;20(1):14-8.
Garg V, Verma SK. Trends of poisoning in rural area
of South-West, Punjab. Journal of Indian Academy of
Forensic Medicine. 2010;32(3):189-93.
Singh DP, Aacharya RP. Pattern of Poisoning Cases in
Bir Hospital. J Inst Med. 2007;28(1):3–6.
Kanchan T, Menezes RG. Suicidal poisoning in
Southern India: gender differences. J Forensic Leg
Med. 2008;15(1):7–14.
Maharani B, Vijayakumari N. Profile of poisoning
cases in a tertiary care hospital, Tamil Nadu, India. J
Appl Pharm Sci. 2013;3(1):91–4.
Bhagora RV, Parmar DJ, Desani CA, Doctor R. Fatal
Poisoning Cases Brought for Postmortem Examination
at Mortuary Profile Study of Fatal Poisoning Cases
Brought for Postmortem Examination at Mortuary of
Sir Takhtsinhji General Hospital, Bhavnagar (Gujarat).
Int J Res Med. 2015;4(3):59–63.
Pipaliya KN, Aghera VJ, Patel MN, Vaghela RD,
Masharu RK. Profile of Fatal Poisoning Cases in and
Around Rajkot Region: A 3 Years Retrospective Study.
Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology.
;9(3):101-4.
Gouda S, Rao MS. Profile of Poisoning Cases in
a Tertiary Care Hospital. Medicolegal Update.
;17(1):234–7.
Poluru VV, Mamatha K. A Study of Common Type
of Poisoning in the Cases Referred for Medicolegal
Autopsy at Sri Venkateswara Medical College,
Tirupati. Medico-Legal Update. 2017;17(1):151-6.
Mugadlimath A, Kadagoudar S, Sheelvant S,
Bambeshwar K. Profile of Medicolegal Autopsy
Cases at Tertiary Care Centre in Bagalkot, Karnataka.
Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology.
;10(2):63-6.
Goswami O, Mahanta P, Kalita D, Konwar R, Yadav
DS. A Three-Year Study on Acute Poisoning Cases
Brought for Medico-Legal Autopsy in a North-
Eastern City of India. Open Access Emerg Med. 2021
;13:45-50.
Patel DJ, Tekade PR. Profile of organophosphorus
poisoning at maharani hospital, Jagdalpur,
Chhattisgarh: a three years study. J Indian Acad
Forensic Med. 2011;33:102-105.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Vipan Bhandari, Nitin Malik, Kanika Kohli, K.K Aggarwal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en