Severe camphor poisoning, a seven-year observational study

- Camphor may be suggested to reduce sexual desire in traditional medicine of Iran.
- Tonic-clonic seizure is a major clinical manifestation of camphor toxicity.
- There is no correlation between the ingested amount and clinical/lab findings.
- After conservative treatments, no mortality or morbidity was found in our series.
- Camphor should be listed in differential diagnoses of seizure in children/adults.

In a retrospective case series from 2007 to 2014, we searched for any accidental/intentional, and recreational cases of pure camphor poisoning through hospital records. Epidemiological data, as well as factors correlated with seizure, were evaluated.Thirty cases including 29 males were recruited with a median age of 18 years (range; 0.2-87). Patient's reported ingestion rate of camphor was 1.5-15 grams. Almost all of the patients (96.7%) were conscious on arrival time and the ingestion to the presentation time ratio was 7 ± 5 h. It was observed that in a majority of the cases (53.4%), decreasing libido was the main intent of Camphor ingestion. Nausea and vomiting occurred in 22 (73.3%) cases and tonic-clonic seizure was seen in 12 (40%) patients. Mean presentation time was significantly longer in patients who experienced seizure (9.1 ± 6.1 h vs. 5.2 ± 2.8 h, p = 0.05). No correlation was found between the amount of ingested camphor (grams or mg/kg) and vital signs along with the bio-chemistry results. Not only did all of our cases survive but also they exclusively received supportive care.

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