Mushroom Poisonings

Abstract

Mushrooms are commonly found in the nature. Ingestion of some kind of toxic mushrooms may cause serious toxicity. Mushrooms poisoning are mostly characterized by mild gastrointestinal findings and good clinical course. In this poisoning, different clinical results may be seen according to the type of ingested mushrooms. Ingestion of wild mushrooms that contain amatoxin is especially important because of the high mortality. Determination of the type of toxic mushrooms and prediction of clinical outcome may serve positive contribution to planning of therapy. The ingestion of wild mushrooms picked up from nature is an important clinical problem in our country. Therefore, the restriction of selling wild mushrooms and the education of people about results of this poisoning may decrease the mortality. In the present study, general characteristics of mushroom poisoning, types of mushrooms, recent therapy methods, and preventing precautions were evaluated.