Authors

1Eduardo Mir Ramos, 2Esther Azón López

Position

¹Diplomado en Enfermería de Emergencias, Servicio Aragonés de Salud-061. Unidad Móvil de Emergencias Alcañiz, Teruel.²Dipl

Abstract

Carbon monoxide intoxication (CO) is a serious public health problem that results in deaths every year. The unspecific nature of its symptoms makes diagnosis difficult, often leading to diagnosis being dependant on the expertise and knowledge of professionals.
Objective: to describe the incidence of intoxications due to CO, fumes, gases and other agents treated by the 061 Aragon out-of-hospital emergency services over five years according to sociodemographic variables.
Material and methods: descriptive, longitudinal and retrospective study performed in the 061 Aragón out-of-hospital emergency services between june 2003 and june 2008. After reviewing clinical histories, information was collected on cases of intoxication due to carbon monoxide and fumes, gases and other agents. Three working hypotheses that associate intoxications with the season of the year, geographic area and sex were established.  
Results: it was observed that over 60% of intoxications due to CO and fumes, gases and other agents took place during the cold months, the province of Teruel having the highest rate of emergency calls, followed by Huesca and Zaragoza. Mean rates of both types of intoxication yielded similar results for both sexes.
Conclusions: the variable nature of the presentation of these events throughout the year is confirmed, with no statistically significant differences observed in terms of sex or province of residence.  In accordance with other similar studies, this could be the starting point of future analytical studies.

Keywords:

carbon monoxide; emergency Nursing; fumes; gases; intoxication; out of hospital emergency

Versión en Español

Título:

Intoxicación por monóxido de carbono en el servicio de emergencias extrahospitalarias 061 Aragón. Estudio de cinco años