KALA PATHAR (PARAPHENYLENE DIAMINE) POISONING: AN ICU BASED OBSERVATIONAL STUDY AT HYDERABAD, PAKISTAN

Paraphenylene-diamine (PPD) ingestion as a suicidal agent is becoming a more common toxicity in Pakistan and other Asian countries as reported in published literature. This coloring dye contains toxic chemicals responsible for hepatic necrosis, renal failure, rhabdomyolysis and severe laryngeal edema that leads to death if not timely managed. This chemical is quite cheap and easily available to a common man so the PPD poisoning is becoming in adults as a source of deliberate self-harm. Current study was conducted from Jan2015 to June 2015 in the ICU(Intensive Care Unit) of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Hospital Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. This study was arranged because no such study was reported from this region of the country previously. There were 24 Patients were diagnosed as kala Pathar poisoning during the study time period with age range of 15-35 yrs. Most of them 17(70.83%) were females while 6(29.17%) were males. Majority of patients were married 18(75%) while 6(25%) were unmarried. Most of the patients belonged to low socio-economic background 22(91.66%) while 02(10.44%) were from middle group and no case was found to belong with high socio-economic group. Overall mortality was found 41.66% and Cure was 54.17% while 4.16% got referred to other facility. It is suggested that the easy availability of this chemical should be stopped and social life of community be improved.