Cardiac glycoside overdose

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Cardiac glycoside overdose

Alternative Names:

Digoxin overdose; Digitoxin overdose; Lanoxin overdose; Purgoxin overdose; Allocar overdose; Corramedan overdose; Cystodigin overdose

Home Treatment:

Do not make the person throw up unless told to do so by Poison Control or a health care provider.

Before Calling Emergency:

Determine the following information:

Patient's age, weight, and condition
Name of product (as well as the ingredients and strength, if known)
Time it was swallowed
Amount swallowed

Poison Control, or a local emergency number:

The National Poison Control Center (1-800-222-1222) can be called from anywhere in the United States. This national hotline number will let you talk to experts in poisoning. They will give you further instructions.

This is a free and confidential service. All local poison control centers in the U.S. use this national number. You should call if you have any questions about poisoning or poison prevention. It does NOT need to be an emergency. You can call for any reason, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Take the container with you to the hospital, if possible.

See National Poison Control center.

What to expect at the emergency room:

The health care provider will measure and monitor the patient's vital signs, including temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure.

The patient may receive:

Medicines to treat symptoms
Activated charcoal
Methods to make the person throw up
A nasogastric (NG) tube thru the nose into the stomach to empty the stomach (gastric lavage)
EKG
Blood tests to check digitalis, serum magnesium, and serum potassium levels
Medicine (antidote) to reverse the effects of the overdose
Methods to correct electrolyte (potassium, magnesium) imbalances

Expectations (prognosis):

If the patient survives the first 24 hours the chance of survival is very good.

Review Date: 4/4/2006
Reviewed By: Janeen R. Azare, PhD, MSPH, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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