Charles Peterson

Ethylene glycol poisoning: pharmacokinetics during therapy with ethanol and hemodialysis.

THE treatment of patients with ethylene glycol poisoning includes both hemodialysis and ethanol.1 2 3 However, there are no data on the pharmacokinetics of ethylene glycol in human beings or on the...

Asystole complicating physostigmine treatment of tricyclic antidepressant overdose

Physostigmine is a commonly used therapy for the anticholinergic manifestations of tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) overdose. We describe two patients with TCA toxicity who developed asystole following the administration of physostigmine to treat seizures.

Emergency gastrotomy for acute iron poisoning

A 15-month-old girl who ingested an estimated 80 mg/kg to 100 mg/kg of elemental iron was treated in the emergency department for acute iron poisoning. Attempts to evacuate the stomach using emesis and gastric lavage were ineffective. Abdominal radiographs confirmed the presence of large, iron-containing aggregates in the stomach. An emergency gastrotomy was required to remove this potentially lethal dose of iron. During surgery the iron was noted to be embedded in the gastric mucosa, explaining its previous resistance to conventional stomach-emptying methods.