Medical Toxicology

Medical Toxicology was established as a formal medical specialty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1996, under the department of Emergency Medicine. University Medical Center now serves as the toxicology referral center for the state of Mississippi. The Medical Toxicology Service serves as a consult service for all of UMC hospitals and clinics, including the adult and pediatric emergency departments and intensive care units, as well as all inpatient and outpatient units. The Medical Toxicology Service also is the primary medical resource for the Mississippi Poison Control Center. All physicians in the state of Mississippi have ready access to medical specialists to help in the management of patients suffering from toxic exposures.

The Medical Toxicology Service is very active in education at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Emergency Medicine residents rotate on the service 24 months a year. The resident rotation is also available to other medical specialties. There is a clinical rotation for fourth-year medical students. Medical Toxicology faculty lecture yearly in the pharmacology course for second-year medical students, and for the departments of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In 1997, the Medical Toxicology Service assisted in the management of over 600 patients. This included approximately 85 UMC hospital consults, evaluation of 65 hospital inpatients, 10 patients evaluated in the toxicology outpatient clinic, and 162 telephone consultations, of which 36 resulted in transfers to UMC. In addition, over 350 patients were evaluated in an outpatient clinic in Pascagoula, MS to study the health effects of domestic exposure to the organophosphate pesticide methylparathion.

The Medical Toxicology Service is involved in an extremely wide variety of clinical problems, ranging from acute overdoses to evaluation of chronic problems such as sick building syndrome. Due to the number of small rural hospitals in the state of Mississippi, many patients are referred to University of Mississippi Medical Center for further evaluation. UMC also has a state-of-the-art clinical toxicology laboratory that provides critical analyses such as methanol or ethylene glycol levels 24-hours daily, as well as having the capability to provide GC/MS and other analyses for more esoteric chemicals. One particular problem that the Medical Toxicology Service routinely manages is snakebites. Mississippi is home to four toxic snake species: the eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus), the water moccasin or cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus), the copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), and the eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulvius). Bites from the first three are common. Contrary to common information in textbooks, serious envenomations can occur from water moccasins and copperheads.

The Medical Toxicology Service is directed by Robert Cox, MD, PhD. Other faculty members of the service include Frederick Carlton, MD, Robert Galli, MD and James Kolb, MD. The Medical Toxicology Service may be contacted at:

(601)984-5577
or
rcox@emergmed.umsmed.edu

Medical Toxicology Service
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Mississippi Medical Center
2500 North State Street
Jackson, MS 39216-4505