Management of celphos poisoning with a novel intervention: A ray of hope in the darkest of clouds

Abstract

CONTEXT: Celphos poisoning is one the most common and lethal poisonings with no antidote available till now. AIMS: To evaluate the effectiveness of new treatment regimens and interventions in reduction of mortality from the fatal effects of celphos poisoning. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A profile of 33 patients, who got admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of our institute with alleged intake of celphos pellets, was studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all the 33 patients with alleged celphos poisoning, extensive gastric lavage was done with a mixture of coconut oil and sodium bicarbonate solution. Strict monitoring, both invasive and non-invasive, was done and symptomatic/supportive treatment was carried out on a patient to patient basis. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: At the end of the study, all the data were compiled systematically and statistical analysis was carried out using the non-parametric tests and value of P<0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Majority of the patients out of the total 33 were young with mean age of 21.86±4.92 and had good educational level. Most of the patients presented clinically with cardiovascular signs and symptoms (58%), followed by respiratory distress (15%) and little higher incidence of multi-organ symptomatology (18%). The mean stay of the patients in ICU was 5.84±1.86 days and the survival rate was 42%. CONCLUSIONS: With the treatment regimen we have formulated, we were able to save 42% of our patients and recommend the use of this regimen by all the intensivists and physicians.