Tox Overview
EMERGENCY MEDICINE PRACTICE AN EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH TO EMERGENCY MEDICINE August 2001 Toxicology Update: A Rational Volume 3, Number 8 Approach To Managing Authors Timothy B. Erickson, MD, FACEP, FACMT Department of Emergency Medicine; Director, Section The Poisoned Patient of Toxicology, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL. Steven E. Aks, DO, FACMT Fellowship Director, Toxikon Consortium; Cook County “What is it that is not a poison? Hospital, University of Illinois Hospital, Rush- All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, IL. It is the dose only that makes a thing not a poison.” Leon Gussow, MD, ABMT —Paracelsus (1493-1541), Department of Emergency Medicine, Cook County Hospital, Chicago, IL. the Renaissance “Father of Toxicology,” in his Third Defense.1 Robert H. Williams, PhD, DABCC, FACMT Department of Pathology, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL. OXIC overdose can present with a great variety of clinical symptoms— Peer Reviewers from minor presentations such as nausea and vomiting, to the calamitous, T William Kerns II, MD, FACEP including altered mental status, seizures, cardiac dysrhythmias, hypotension, Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology, Carolinas and respiratory depression. In the patient with altered mental status, there may Medical Center, Charlotte, NC. be few clues to diagnosis at the time of initial assessment and management. The Peter Viccellio, MD, FACEP diagnosis may be complicated by the ingestion of multiple drugs. Professor of Emergency Medicine, SUNY at Stony Brook, The clinical course of a poisoned patient depends largely on the specific Stony Brook, NY. Marianne C. Burke, MD toxicity of the agent and the quality of care delivered within the first several Emergency Medicine Consultants, Glendale, CA.
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