Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics related to the final condition of patients intoxicated by paraquat in a hospital in southwestern Colombia

Introduction: Paraquat is an agrochemical that constitutes the first cause of death by poisoning in different countries. Objective: To relate sociodemographic and clinical characteristics with the final condition of patients intoxicated by paraquat in a hospital in southwestern Colombia. Materials and methods: This was an observational, descriptive, analytical, crosssectional, and retrospective study. We reviewed the medical records of patients diagnosed with paraquat poisoning at a level III hospital in Pasto, Colombia, from 2013 to 2018. We collected the data regarding their final condition (alive or deceased) and their sociodemographic, clinical, and paraclinical information. We established group comparisons and designed a binary logistic regression model. Results: We reviewed 299 records and, after the exclusion, we analyzed 160 cases. The characteristics related to the final condition of the patients were length of stay (OR = 0.124; 95% CI: 0.03-0.6; p = 0.009), heart rate (OR = 35.65; 95% CI: 1.44-884.78; p = 0.029), and initial creatinine (OR = 1.73; 95% CI: 1.23-2.44; p = 0.002). Conclusion: The proportion of case fatality was higher in patients with short hospital stay times and elevated heart rates and admission creatinine levels. This report may be useful as a rationale for the creation of a severity scale for the early detection of patients with adverse outcomes and their timely treatment.