Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of antibiotics prevention for the patients with coma in acute poisoning complicated by infection.Methods Clinical data for 47 cases with acute poisoning during May 1999 to May 2001 admitted to the Emergency Room of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital were collected and analyzed for complicated infection.Results Seventeen of the 47 cases of acute poisoning were complicated with infection (36.2%).Fourteen of those with infection were complicated with coma (14/17),and 26 of the 30 without infection complicated with coma (26/30).Average length appearing coma was (39.1?26.0) h in the group complicated with infection,as compared with (24.4 ?16.7) h in the group without infection,with a statistical significance.There were less cases who received antibiotics prophylactally in the group with coma and infection (6/14 or 42.9%) than in the controls (20/26 or 76.9%),with P