JIST

Abstract

India ranks high in the incidence of poisoning as compared to all other countries in the world. The effective management of a case of poisoning begins with appropriate decontamination procedures undertaken on time. Specific treatment measures may be futile without removal of the poison that has already entered the system. Decontamination of skin and eyes are as important as removal of poison from the gut. Continued subcutaneous absorption from skin can be hazardous even if the treating doctor removes poison from the gut. This paper deals with the current status of various decontamination procedures relating to the gut, including emesis, gastric lavage, catharsis, activated charcoal, whole bowel irrigation and surgery/endoscopy. While the approach to many decontamination procedures have seen some radical changes over the last decade, it is unfortunate that most physicians in India still follow outdated concepts. As a result, victims of poisoning are often subjected to useless or even hazardous decontamination procedures causing more harm than would have been caused by the poison itself. An attempt has been made in this paper to emphasize the reasons for replacing some of the harmful conventional methods with updated, effective and efficient decontamination methods in cases of poisoning.