Trazodone is a medication used to treat major depressive disorder (MDD). It is in the serotonin-antagonistand-reuptake-inhibitor class of medications with anti-cholinergic effects. Trazodone is known for its sedative effects and is hence often prescribed in those with MDD with concurrent insomnia. While few, there have been reports of patients overdosing on trazodone and developing QTc prolongation leading to fatal arrhythmias such as torsades des pointes and variable atrioventricular blocks. We present a case of a 45year-old female with a past medical history of MDD and anxiety, who presented with dizziness, transient ataxia, and urinary incontinence following ingestion of five 100 mg trazodone tablets. Although her vitals were initially stable on admission, her EKG was concerning for QTc prolongation of 502 ms. A few hours later, she started developing hypotension and progressive QTc prolongation, with a peak of 586 ms. Given the high risk of decompensation, the patient was admitted to the ICU for further care where she received adequate supportive management in the form of fluid resuscitation, electrolyte repletion, serial EKGs every hour, and telemetry monitoring for arrhythmias, with eventual improvement in her clinical condition. Trazodone poisoning, while rare, can be fatal and hence requires close monitoring to prevent complications. Clinicians must be aware of these possible adverse outcomes when managing trazodone toxicity.
e24166 Background: Multiple national database-based studies have shown that Black and Hispanic patients are less likely to receive palliative care options at end-of-life (EOL) inpatient care leading to higher costs and poorer quality of life. To the best of our knowledge, there is no reported data specifically considering lung and pleural malignancies. Methods: We analyzed hospitalizations across the United States in 2019 from the National Inpatient Sample dataset, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. We identified adult non-emergent hospitalizations with ‘malignant neoplasm of the lung and bronchus’ (including mesothelioma) listed as the principal reason for hospitalization using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, clinical modification codes C34.0, C34.1, C34.2, C34.3, C34.8, C34.9, and their sub-branches. StataCorp Stata software was used to extract data and compute mortality and palliative care consult utilization among various demographic factors such as sex, age, race, and payer status. Results: Of 67,425 total hospitalizations, 9.4% resulted in mortality. Of these 6338 patients that died, 73.1% were White, 13% Black, 5.8% Hispanic, 3.9% Asians/Pacific Islanders, 0.6% Native Americans, and 3.3% were other races. Palliative care was consulted in 63% of the patients whose admission resulted in death. 64.9% of the White patients, 58.6% of the Black patients, 62.6% of Hispanic patients, 67.7% of Asians/Pacific Islanders, 60% Native Americans, and 59.6% of other races were offered palliative care prior to their death. The average age among the admissions which resulted in death was 69.03 years. Conclusions: While most admissions resulting in mortality were among the White population, there was still a clear discrepancy in the number of Black patients on whom palliative care was consulted. Possible reasons include poor healthcare literacy, physician mistrust, and cultural preferences. Clinicians should consider and suggest early palliative care consultation in the care of Black patients and other minority racial groups to improve the quality of EOL care.
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