Question

Discuss with some detail the four ways ways poisons can be taken into the body. After poison ingestion, vomiting should be avoided with what five conditions? Short, one-word answers are unacceptable. Be sure to document your references in proper APA format.

Answer 1

#. Poisons can be taken into the body in four different ways:

- ingestion

- inhalation

- injection

- absorption

#. In cases of poison ingestion, vomiting is to be avoided under the following five conditions:

(1) Ingestion of corrosive substances such as mineral acids or caustic alkalis (e.g., carbolic acid, ammonia, drain cleaners, oven cleaners, dishwasher detergent, and lye). Check also for burns around or in the mouth. If the ingested substance burned tissue on the "way down," it is likely it will also burn and damage tissue on the "way back up" and therefore vomiting can cause additional tissue damage.

(2) Ingestion of volatile petroleum products (e.g., gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid, and benzene). Vomiting can cause aspiration and/or asphyxiation (suffocation).

(3) Ingestion of convulsants (e.g., strychnine or iodine). Vomiting can precipitate seizures.

(4) If patient is semiconscious, severely inebriated, in shock, convulsing, or has no gag reflex. Vomiting could cause choking, aspiration, and/or asphyxiation.

(5) If patient is less than one year old.

(6) In patients with cardiac or vascular disease, vomiting can increase blood pressure and precipitate a stroke, cardiac arrhythmias, or atrioventricular block.