Organophosphate poisoning (OPP) is a major health-care burden in South Africa. Recently, we have observed that patients admitted to our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with OPP have followed a more complicated course in comparison to previous years.
To describe the differences in the clinical course and costs of patients with OPP between two time periods, namely 2012 and 2017.
Retrospective comparison of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital between January 2012 to December 2012 and January 2017 to December 2017.
Forty-one patients were found in the database. Patients from our 2017 cohort showed a significantly longer total median (IQR) length of stay 8 (4–17) days vs. 2 (2–3) days, p = 0.000, duration of antidote therapy 5 (3−10) days vs. 2 (2–3) days, p = 0.004 and duration of ventilation 4 (2−11) days vs 1 (1–2) day, p = 0.003. Patients presenting in 2017 were more likely to be admitted to ICU, odds ratio 5.6 (CI 1.2–26). There was a 31- fold increase in ICU costs between 2012 and 2017.