| Abstrakt: |
Pediatricians, poison control centers, and emergency rooms are frequently called upon to identify the potential for harm following exposure to drugs, commercial products, or plants and to determine if and how to manage such cases. This paper evaluates four periodically updated poison control resources in wide use: poisindex, toxifile, clinical toxicology of commercial products (ctcp), and the national clearinghouse for poison control centers' cards. The former two sources are quarterly updated microfiche systems. An ideal system would 1) allow rapid retrieval of product identification, toxicity, and management on all substances; 2) be simple to use; 3) allow frequent and easy updating; and 4) be inexpensive. Two studies were conducted to determine the frequency with which substances could be located in each of four toxicology resources. Poisindex was shown to be more complete and effective than the other resources. studies were based on poison calls to the cincinnati drug and poison information center. For poisindex the time required for an individual to respond to a poison information request was 155 seconds. Unfortunately, there is an inverse relationship between its cost and effectiveness. The most effective combination on the basis of cost would be the clearinghouse cards and ctcp. No attempt was made to determine the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained within each resource. A great problem in such evaluation is lack of consensus among experts on the most appropriate treatment for many types of poisoning, i e., those with petroleum distillates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
