Pattern and outcome of Cleistanthus collinus (Oduvanthalai) poisoning in a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India.

There is paucity of information on human studies about Cleistanthus collinus (Oduvanthalai) poisoning at global level. The present study was done to find out the pattern and outcomes with acute poisoning of this plant poison. Retrospective record based study was conducted among acute C. collinus (Oduvanthalai) poisoning cases admitted between January 2010 and December 2010 in a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. A total of 51 cases were analyzed with 52.9% of them being females and 51% belonged to 21-40 years age group. Interpersonal conflict was the stressor for poisoning in 76% cases. Mortality rate was 17.6% with a median duration of 3.5 days from time of ingestion. Majority of the patients who died during hospitalization had ingested decoction (77.8%), and had neurological manifestations (77.8%), hypokalemia (77.8%), neutrophilia (66.7%), leucocyotosis (55.6%) and elevated blood urea (77.8%). It was found that lower potassium level, white blood cell and neutrophil count were significantly associated with mortality due to poisoning.