1984 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers National Data Collection System

In 1983, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) piloted a project to collect epidemiological data on poison exposures reported to poison centers nationwide.¹ In 1984 the Data Collection System was available to all interested AAPCC member poison centers and was established as an ongoing National Database. The following data represent the annual report for 1984 for this National Data Collection System.     

American Association of Poison Control Centers

Abstract

120 cases of class IC antiarrhythmic overdose, including propafenone, flecainide, ajmaline and prajmaline overdose, were evaluated with respect to clinical course, therapy and outcome. Whereas drug overdose in general has an overall mortality of less than 1%, intoxication with antiarrhythmic drugs of class IC was associated with a mean mortality of 22.5%. Nausea, which occurred within the first 30 minutes after ingestion, was the earliest symptom. Spontaneous vomiting probably led to self-detoxication in about half the patients. Cardiac symptoms including bradycardia and, less frequently, tachyrhythmia occurred after about 30 minutes to 2 hours. Therapeutic measures included administration of activated charcoal, gastric lavage and a saline laxative, catecholamines, and in some patients, hypertonic sodium bicarbonate, insertion of a transvenous pacemaker and hemoperfusion. Fatal outcome was mainly due to cardiac conduction disturbances progressing to electromechanical dissociation or asystolia. Resuscitation, which had to be performed in 29 patients, was successful in only two of them. No correlation was found between fatal outcome, the type of antiarrhythmic, and ingested dose. Since a specific treatment is not available and resuscitive procedures including sodium bicarbonate and insertion of a pacemaker are of limited therapeutic value, early diagnosis and primary detoxification are most important for prevention of fatal outcome.     

1985 Annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers National Data Collection System

In 1983, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) piloted a project to collect epidemiological data on poison exposures reported to poison centers nationwide.¹ Sixteen participating poison centers reported 251,012 human poison exposures during that year. Forty-seven centers participated in the National Data Collection System in 1984, reporting 730,224 human poison exposures.² The data presented herein reflect 900,513 human poison exposures reported in 1985 to 56 participating poison centers.