Risk Factors of Development of Delayed Encephalopathy following Acute Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Abstract

Delayed encephalopathy (DE) is a poorly predictable outcome following acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. In order to define the risk factors of DE in patients with acute CO poisoning and improve prevention, 207 cases of acute CO poisoning were observed during the acute stage and followed up for 3 months: 27 (13%) developed DE. Statistical analyses of 97 factors present in the acute stage showed 6 to be statistically significant risk factors for the devel opment of DE. These were: age > 40 years, occupation involved mental work, previous hypertension, coma at the acute stage lasting 2-3 days, longer persis tence of dizziness and fatigue after regaining consciousness, and being men tally stimulated during the recovery stage of acute CO poisoning. Based on these six factors, a logistic regression equation for predicting the probability of DE in individual patients with acute CO poisoning has been established.

Keywords

Acute poisoning Carbon monoxide Delayed encephalopathy Prediction of probability Risk factors

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