Poison Information Center
A poison information center offers telephone medical advice for laypeople and members of the health professions (doctors and nurses in practice, emergency services , emergency rooms and intensive care units in hospitals) in the event of poisoning and suspected cases.
Depending on the country, poison information centers are operated under different names:
- in Germany: poison , Poison Information Center or poison center ,
- in Austria: Poison Information Center (VIZ) (telephone number 01 4064343),
- in Switzerland: Tox Info Suisse (telephone number 145).
The poison information centers are staffed around the clock. Doctors from various disciplines (e.g. pharmacology and toxicology , internal medicine , paediatrics , intensive care medicine ) estimate the risk of poisoning of the poisoned person based on the toxicological anamnesis , the findings of the clinical examination and, if necessary, based on the results of laboratory tests and enter special diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations tailored to the specifics of each case. These include in particular:
- Recommendations for alerting the ambulance service, presentation in a clinic, doctor presentation or home surveillance and
- Recommendations for (more extensive) technical examinations ( laboratory values , X-rays , endoscopy , etc.)
- toxicological analysis (detection of substances in biological material such as blood, urine, hair, etc.),
- Measures for primary poison removal (induction of vomiting , gastric lavage , administration of activated charcoal , orthograde intestinal lavage ),
- Measures for secondary poison removal (repeated administration of activated charcoal , forced diuresis , hemodialysis , hemoperfusion ),
- Administration of antidotes ( antidotes , antivenins )
- intensive care monitoring measures.
In Germany the tasks of the poison information centers are u. a. in §16e (3) "Notifications for the information and treatment centers for poisoning", "Law for the protection against dangerous substances" ( ChemG ) regulated by law.
The Swiss Toxicological Information Center was founded in 1966 by the Association of Pharmacists and has been called Tox Info Suisse since the beginning of 2015 .
