Profile ofpatients with rodenticide poisoning and pictorial confirmation of rodenticideas quick means of identification: A study inatertiary level Hospital

Rodent control is important for survival and health of human populations and use of chemical rodenticides is one of the common methods of control. Yellow phosphorus is a highly toxic compound which is used as rodenticide and in firecrackers. This is a prospective observational study conducted on patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital with suspected rodenticide poisoning. The most common age group was 15–30 years with a male preponderance. The most common type of rodenticide consumed was found to be yellow phosphorus. In about three-quarters (72%) of the patients, the rodenticide was procured from grocery stores. In 32.4% of cases domestic fight was the reason for consuming the rodenticide. The median time between ingestion and admission to the referral hospital was 15.5 hours, (25–75 percentiles, 5–85 hours) and the mean duration of hospital stay was 8±5.5 days. The most common presenting symptom was vomiting (42, 61.76%) followed by abdominal pain (31, 45.59%). According to the present study, mortality rate is 10.3% (7 cases) overall with most of the deaths (6 cases) caused by yellow phosphorus poisoning. All the patients who were subjected to picture identification were able to correctly identify the rodenticide. Picture identification of the rodenticide provides an edge in early diagnosis and treatment.