Atropa Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade) Poisoning in Chilhood

Abstract

Background: A very small amount of Atropa belladonna (AB) can lead to serious symptoms of poisoning and can cause death in children. In this study, demographic, clinic and laboratory results of AB poisoning were evaluated. Materials and methods: 108 cases with belladonna poisoning were retrospectively evaluated. At time of admission: age, age groups, gender, signs and symptoms caused by poisoning, duration of staying in hospital, laboratory data, intensive-care needs and applied treatments were recorded. Results: 44.4% were female and 55.6% were male. While the most common symptoms were xeroderma and flushing, the most frequent findings were tachycardia and mydriasis. Eight patients complained about astasis and five of them were taken into the intensive care unit. Astasis complaint was relatively higher (p<0.01) in the patients who needed intensive care than those not. Creatine kinase levels were relatively higher (p=0.06) in the intensive care patients as compared to nonintensive care patients. Neostigmine was given to all patients. Five patients, whom failed to respond to therapy, were taken into the intensive care and respond to treatment succesufuly with physostigmine. Conclusions: AB poisoning may seriously progress in the act of late diagnosis and treatment in childhood. Thus, it is crucial to realize that AB poisoning should be taken into consideration in the patients with flushing, xeroderma with mydriasis, tachycardia, tremor, abdominal pain and fever symptoms. Patients with astasis complaints should be evaluated carefully in terms of intensive care need. Patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale lower than 12 should be observed in the intensive care.

First response of emergency health care system and logistics support in an earthquake

“…An increase in 112 calls after the earthquake, triage, and patient registration problems as a result of the increase of inpatient admissions to emergencies, insufficient space to examine the patients, communication problems, increased application of non-earthquake victim patients and problems in patient transport are among the problems that occurred within the first 24-48 hours in emergency services [11][12][13][14][15][16]. MTPs were established to avoid similar problems in the emergency services of the hospitals in Elazığ and patients were looked after there.…”

The role and significance of 112 emergency health services in treatment and guidance in mass food poisoning cases

“…In a series of eight cases showing poisoning with Atropa belladonna L. conducted by Schneider et al [13], three of the four adults had visual hallucinations and delirium, while one of these later fell into a coma and required mechanical ventilation. In the retrospective study by Bektaş MS et al [14], which included 108 cases, age at the time of admission, age groups, gender, signs and symptoms caused by poisoning, hospitalization time, laboratory data, intensive care needs and the treatment given were recorded. 44.4% of the patients were female, while 55.6% were male.…”

Belladonna Delirium: Introduction, Overview and Literature Review

“…Usually referred to as deadly nightshade, and in Turkey as the 'beautiful woman herb' (3). AB is a toxic plant composed of atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolaminxe alkaloids; atropa belladonna (AB) is a poison everyone should be careful of as there are reported cases of intoxication (4)(5)(6), especially in children who may mistaken the plant for cherries or blueberries (4,7,8).…”