Evaluat?on of Basal Metabol?c Panels in Drug Po?son?ng Who Appl?ed W?th Act?vated Charcoal

Abstract

Abdullah Osman, Omer Faruk GEMIS, Ilker AKBAS and Zeynep CAKIR

Introduction: Poisoning is the hindering of the bodily functions of the organism after it encounters a toxic factor. Poisoning may be the result of suicide attempts, overdose, or adverse effects. Some of these patients require gastrointestinal decontamination. The most commonly used material for this is activated charcoal. Activated charcoal may cause side-effects in the human body.

Purpose: This study examines the effects of active charcoal on the basic metabolic panel when used on patients for any reason.

Material and Method: This is a retrospective, single-center, and observational study. The subjects of the study are patients that were admitted to the emergency room between 01.01.2012 and 30.07.2017 with various cases of poisoning, and who underwent activated charcoal treatment. The ingested drugs were classified according to their active substances. The patients were evaluated with regard to their age, gender, vital findings, chronic diseases, chronic medication, whether they were referred from external centres, and whether or not they received active charcoal.

Results: The changes in patients' levels of pCO2, Na, Ca, BUN, creatinine and blood glucose were found to be statistically significant. However, since all the obtained values were within reference ranges, the difference was not considered to be clinically significant. No significant change was observed in blood pH, K and Mg concentrations.

Conclusion: This study is a first in the literature to indicate that there is no clinically significant change in the basic metabolic panels of patients who received active charcoal treatment. This study has shown that active charcoal treatment can be applied to patients with chronic diseases.

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