Treatment of poisoning

Extract

• Airway patency and respiration and circulation should be assessed and supported immediately, as necessary (ABCDE principles, see e.g. Prehospital emergency care1).
• Simultaneously with examination and risk assessment, exposure should be stopped, as far as possible, and prevention of absorption of the toxic substance started (alimentary tract, skin), using medicinal charcoal, in particular, if charcoal binds the causative agent.
• If the patient history and risk assessment suggest severe poisoning, the patient should be transferred without delay to a facility with sufficient possibilities for treatment.
  • Some cases of poisoning require rapid start of elimination of the toxic substance (such as dialysis) or of administration of a specific antibody even if the patient is relatively asymptomatic on assessment.
• The patient may have other injuries or diseases than ones related to the poisoning.
• For special features of poisoning in children, see Poisoning in children2; for special features in the elderly, see Treatment of poisoning in the elderly3.
• The local/national poison information center should be readily consulted.

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Alcoholic Intoxication, Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic, Arrhythmia, Atropine, Blood Circulation, Cefuroxime, Diazepam, Dopamine, Emergency Treatment, Fluid Therapy, Gastric Lavage, Glasgow coma scale, Hypotension, Internal medicine, Intubation, Lidocaine, Lithium, Lorazepam, Metoclopramide, Morphine Derivatives, Mushroom Poisoning, Nausea, Penicillin G, Pharmacology, Pneumonia, Aspiration, Poison Control Centers, Poisoning, Propofol, Pupil, Rhabdomyolysis, Sodium Bicarbonate, T36*, T40, T51, X44, adrenergic syndrome, anticholinergic syndrome, cholinergic syndrome, intestinal lavage, mixed poisoning, mouth, stomach tube, opiate withdrawal syndrome, position therapy, provoked vomiting, sedative syndrome, seizures, serotonergic syndrome, torsades de pointes