DETECTION, ANALYSIS AND PROCESSING OF ACUTE ALCOHOL INTOXICATIONS COLLECTED AT EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT OF THE “GARIBALDI CENTRO” HOSPITAL IN CATANIA

Abstract

The study we conducted was highlighted the main clinical aspects of voluntary or accidental acute alcohol intoxication. These intoxication were identified over the five-year period between 2015 and 2019, and we evaluated its pharmacological management by statistical analysis of clinical cases detected at the Emergency Department of “Garibaldi Centro” Hospital in Catania. The extrapolated data showed that acute alcohol intoxications are the main reason of access to the Emergency Department (65%) to which drugs (17%), addicted substances (8%), and other substances (caustics, food, gases and vapours, detergents and soaps, benzene and pesticides, 10%). It has been shown that the most commonly used treatment in intervention therapy of acute alcohol intoxications is Metadoxil (methadoxine), a metabolic accelerator that prevents alcohol admixation by facilitating metabolism and increasing urinary elimination of ethanol and its toxic metabolite, acetaldehyde. The prevention study of clinical cases detected shows that the age group most exposed to acute alcohol toxicose is the age range 18-24 years with a greater prevalence of male sex. It is therefore clear that prevention and information campaigns need to be increased by means of different professional channels and professions such as pharmacist.