Interventions for paracetamol (acetaminophen) overdoses

Acetaminophen Poisoning: an Evidence-Based Consensus Guideline for Out-of-Hospital Management

“…The Toxic Exposure Surveillance System of the American Association of Poison Control Centers lists 14 deaths in children under the age of 6 years in the period 1990-2003. One of these deaths involved an acute exposure to acetaminophen but the child had also ingested diphenhydramine and iron (20).…”

“…However, it is likely that all of these studies had insufficient power to detect the rare event of toxicity after a single dose of acetaminophen in a child under the age of 6 years. Very few cases of toxicity after acute single ingestion by a child under the age of 6 years were found in the medical literature and in the AAPCC TESS database (20). If this type of toxicity occurs, it is rare.…”

How Is Acute Liver Failure Managed (Including Hepatic Encephalopathy)?

“…13 Brok and colleagues from the Cochrane Collaborative summarized the evidence for therapy of acetaminophen overdose in 2002. 14 Drug-induced hepatotoxicity (apart from that induced by acetaminophen) is usually idiosyncratic and typically occurs during the first 6 months of therapy. There are no specific antidotes, but the offending agent should be identified and stopped.…”

Acute poisoning on the medical admissions unit

“…Treatment protocols for these overdoses are well described. (Further information is provided in the Cochrane database review for paracetamol overdosing 7 and in Teece's review of therapies for salicylate poisoning. 8 )…”