Prehospital activated charcoal: the way forward

Objectives: Single dose activated charcoal (SDAC) may be an effective method of gastric decontamination when administered to patients within an hour of drug overdose. However, few patients who may benefit from this treatment attend an emergency department within this timeframe. The authors sought to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emergency medicine journal : EMJ 2005-10, Vol.22 (10), p.734-737
Main Authors: Greene, S L, Kerins, M, O’Connor, N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AACT
activated charcoal
ambulance
Ambulance services
American Academy of Clinical Toxicology
Analgesics
Attitude of Health Personnel
Charcoal
Charcoal - adverse effects
Charcoal - therapeutic use
Clinical trials
Drug dosages
Drug overdose
Drug Overdose - therapy
Drug Utilization - statistics & numerical data
EAPCCT
Emergency Medical Services - methods
Emergency Medical Services - trends
European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists
Evidence-Based Medicine
Feasibility studies
Health Care Surveys
Humans
Intervention
overdose
Poisoning
Prehospital Care
Professional Practice - statistics & numerical data
Questionnaires
SDAC
single dose activated charcoal
Sorption Detoxification - methods
Sorption Detoxification - utilization
State Medicine
United Kingdom
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objectives: Single dose activated charcoal (SDAC) may be an effective method of gastric decontamination when administered to patients within an hour of drug overdose. However, few patients who may benefit from this treatment attend an emergency department within this timeframe. The authors sought to determine the current attitudes of ambulance NHS trusts to recent recommendations that the administration of SDAC should be considered as a prehospital therapy. Methods: A postal questionnaire was used to determine the current level of use of prehospital activated charcoal by ambulance NHS trusts, the incidence of associated complications, and barriers preventing the routine use of prehospital SDAC. Results: A completed questionnaire was returned by 36 of the 39 ambulance NHS trusts in the UK (response rate 92%). Currently none of the trusts that responded to the questionnaire provides prehospital SDAC as an intervention. The most common barriers to the provision of prehospital SDAC are the current lack of evidence in the medical literature proving it is effective in improving patient outcome and the lack of a recognised protocol for its administration. Other issues included concerns regarding potential complications, ambulance turnaround times, lack of availability of SDAC, and lack of funding. Conclusions: A lack of published evidence proving efficacy remains the most important factor in preventing the routine administration of SDAC to appropriate patients in the prehospital environment. Further research in this setting is required to determine the usefulness of this therapy.
ISSN:1472-0205
1472-0213
DOI:10.1136/emj.2005.024968