Biomedical subjects

E S Rondeau

Publications and source records attributed to E S Rondeau.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1993

Wisteria toxicity.

A 50 year-old female ingested 10 seeds from the pods of the Wisteria plant due to curiosity and the perception that they were edible beans. Subsequent toxic effects included headache, gastroenteritis, hematemesis, dizziness, confusion, diaphoresis, and a syncopal episode. She continued to feel tired and complained of being dizzy 5 to 7 days after the ingestion. Despite the abundant references in the literature supporting the toxicity of this plant and the cases cited by Lampe and McCann (1), a literature search identified only one additional case report involving two youths in Italy who ingested at least 5-6 seeds each (2). The three events were sufficiently similar in the onset of the gastrointestinal symptoms and the effects on the central nervous system as to characterize a Wisteria syndrome.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Ineffectiveness of a mass mailing campaign to improve poison center awareness in a rural population.

The distribution of poison prevention and education literature represents a significant part of poison center outreach programs. Yet the effectiveness, in terms of cost and impact, of mailing this material in an unsolicited fashion has not been investigated. We questioned the effectiveness of poison education literature through mass mailing to increase poison center awareness and improve one's ability to comprehend and retain appropriate first aid response in the event of a poisoning emergency. Two poison education brochures, in English and Spanish translation, and 2 telephone stickers were mailed third class to all 8,948 households in 1 rural county at a total cost of $3,420. A total of 397 (4.4%) households were randomly selected and successfully completed a 23-question telephone survey 6 mo after the mailing. The primary language spoken by the respondents were English, 311 (78%) and Spanish, 86 (22%). Children under the age of 6 y were present in 101 (25%) households. Only 50 (13%) respondents remembered having received any poison education brochures. Although 147 (37%) responded that they had heard of the regional poison center, only 63 (16%) said they would call the poison center first in the event of a poisoning. Forty-four percent indicated they would call 911 first. Only a small increase in penetrance rate was found when comparing 6 mo periods before and after the mailing. We conclude that mass mailing of poison education brochures made little impact in improving poison center awareness and first aid response and was not a cost effective method of poison education.

Advertising↗

PubMed1992

Plant nurseries: a reliable resource for plant identification?

Poison Centers frequently rely on the assistance of local plant nurseries to identify unknown plants involved in exposures. The reliability and accuracy of utilizing this method has never been studied; therefore, our objective was to evaluate this primary resource of plant identification. A study was done in which callers were instructed to take plant samples to a local nursery for visual identification. Once the patient was treated according to our normal protocol, the plant specimen was sent to a botanist for a second identification. The botanist provided his identification results through a blinded process. The collected data was gathered from 68 cases that completed the necessary study criteria. In 58% of the cases, plant nurseries were an unreliable source for plant identification. These incorrect identifications resulted in the "undertreatment" in 24% of the exposures.

Animals↗