Abstract
In Iran, almost all emergency departments and most of the intensive care units (ICUs) treat poisoning patients, but there are some hospitals that serve to poisoning cases in a specific manner and are equipped with antidotes. Likely, Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan Universities have perfect clinical poisoning treatment centers that are mainly used for the education of medical students and residents. In Tehran, Loghman-Hakim hospital poison center is an absolutely well-known and the most famous center for treatment of poisoning patients in Tehran and nearby cities. It is a teaching hospital affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Within this poison center, there is a perfect emergency department, unique intensive care unit (ICU) with 20 inpatient beds, and a specific poisoning ward. Also, the center has been joined by a Toxicological Research Center (TRC) that is located within the same hospital. Totally, there are 82 inpatient beds for intoxicated patients. Annually, more than 25,000 poisoned patients are referred to this center. The next famous poison center of Iran is Imam Reza hospital poison center, which is a treatment center for poisoning patients located in the city Mashhad. This center is affiliated to a teaching hospital owned by Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. This center has been joined to the Medical Toxicology Research Center (MTC), which has research labs, clinic, and ward for the poisoning patients. This center collaborates with the International Program on Chemical Safety (IPCS). The other active poisoning treatment center is the Emergency Department of Noor teaching hospital, located in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Isfahan. It consists of 6 ICU beds and 15 ward beds. Regularly, anesthesiology residents, interns, and other medical students are taught about management of poisoning cases in this center. The Clinical Toxicology Research Center, which is also located inside the Noor hospital, collaborates with this poison center in providing research projects to study on acute and chronic poisonings. Baharloo hospital is another teaching hospital affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, which has been newly established and has a perfect poisoning treatment center. This center has a 10-bed toxicology ICU and 15 ward beds to provide highly specialized care of various intoxications. Yaftabad hospital is another teaching hospital affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences located in Tehran, which has a separate emergency department for poisoned patients, equipped with 8-bed toxicology ICU. Razi hospital is another teaching hospital affiliated to Ahwaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences located in Ahwaz, a city in south of Iran. Razi hospital primarily focuses on toxicology of scorpion and snakes that are common in that region of the country. Shoshtari hospital is another teaching hospital affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences located in Shiraz. This hospital also has a specific 15-bed poisoning ward.
Furthermore, there are other centers located in other cities including Arak, Ardabil, Birjand, Hamadan, Tabriz, Sari, Rasht, and Urmia, which have separate beds for management of poisoning cases; although they do not have special poisoning ward, they are improving.
In addition, there are strong Drug and Poison Information Centers (DPICs) that work under the supervision of the Medical Universities and the Food and Drug Department of the Ministry of Health (MOH). The first official DPIC was established in 1995 at Tehran by a team supervised by Prof Mohammad Abdollahi and Dr Shekoufeh Nikfar 1 –3 in a good collaboration with IPCS. 4 Then, by cooperation of the team located in Tehran, other DPICs were established countrywide in most of the provinces and the staffs were trained by the Tehran team to learn how to work in DPIC. At present, there are 29 active DPICs countrywide that work as a network under the supervision of the Medical Universities and MOH and are continuing well by cooperation of new colleagues. 3 Taking collectively, comparing poisoning data of 1997 5 with that of 2003 6 , authors believe that a good job has been done by Iranian DPICs, which has resulted in lower incidence of poisoning cases.