Department of emergency medicine, Erciyes University Medical Faculty

Introduction: Due to suitable ecological conditions, our country is rich of mushroom flora. When wild mushrooms are consumed, it may cause clinical spectrum of conditions from allergic gastroenteritis to lethal liver necrosis. In this study we aimed to evaluate the demographic, clinical and laboratory features of 37 patients admitted to our emergency department due to suspicion of mushroom poisoning. Material and methods: Adult patients admitted to the emergency department due to mushroom poisoning on October the 29th, 2006 were included in the study. Clinical and laboratory findings of all cases were recorded. Discharged patients after initial evaluation were invited for the control examination. Results: Thirty-seven patients were evaluated as poisoning. Twenty-seven (72.9%) of the patients were female. Mean age of the patients was 36.32 15.6 years. Mean starting time of the first symptom after mushroom consumption was 1.4 ± 1.5 hours. The most common symptoms were nausea (75.6%), vomiting (64.8%) and abdominal pain (45.9%). After 48th hour control, all of cases were discharged from the emergency department. Conclusion: It is obvious with this study that both our region and our country are potentially dangerous places for mushroom poisoning and we think that emergency physicians must have knowledge of follow up and treatment of these patients.