PURPOSE The efficacy, safety, and cost issues that should be considered when deciding on the appropriate route of acetylcysteine for the treatment of patients with acetaminophen poisoning are reviewed. SUMMARY Oral and i.v. acetylcysteine appear to be equally effective when given within 8-10 hours of acetaminophen overdose. Anaphylactoid reactions to i.v. acetylcysteine have generally been re...

The aim of this study was to assess whether acetaminophen poisoning is associated with a higher risk of acute pancreatitis. We conducted a retrospective cohort study by using the longitudinal population-based database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) program between 2000 and 2011. The acetaminophen cohort comprised patients aged 20 years with newly identified acetaminophen poisoning ...

Acetaminophen is a widely used antipyretic analgesic, reducing fever caused by bacterial and viral infections and by clinical trauma such as cancer or stroke. In rare cases in humans, e.g., in febrile children or HIV or stroke patients, acetaminophen causes hypothermia while therapeutic blood levels of the drug are maintained. In C57/BL6 mice, acetaminophen caused hypothermia that was dose rela...

BACKGROUND Acetaminophen (paracetamol) is a widely used over-the-counter drug, but concerns of genotoxic effects have been raised. After we recently found an almost two-fold increased risk of hematologic malignancies associated with high use of acetaminophen in the prospective VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) study, we herein further examined the association between acetaminophen use and cancer r...

BACKGROUND Recommendations state that acetaminophen should be used in preference to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the initial treatment of symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee, because of lesser toxicity and the pervasive belief that acetaminophen is not only effective in treating OA pain but is of equal analgesic efficacy as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. METHO...

In the current study, the cardioprotective efficacy of 0.35 mmol/l acetaminophen administered 10 min after the onset of a 20-min period of global, low-flow myocardial ischemia was investigated. Matched control hearts were administered an equal volume of Krebs-Henseleit physiological buffer solution (vehicle). In separate groups of hearts, the concentration-dependent, negative inotropic properti...

Background Acute kidney injury independently predicts mortality in falciparum malaria. It is not known whether acetaminophen's capacity to inhibit plasma hemoglobin-mediated oxidation is renoprotective in severe malaria. Methods A phase 2, open-label, randomized controlled trial at two hospitals in Bangladesh was conducted to assess effects on renal function, safety, pharmacokinetic propertie...

INTRODUCTION Recovery from orthopedic surgery is oriented towards restoring functional health outcomes while reducing hospital length of stay (LOS) and medical expenditures. Optimal pain management is a key to reaching these objectives. We sought to compare orthopedic surgery patients who received combination intravenous (IV) acetaminophen and IV opioid analgesia to those who received IV opioid...

PURPOSE Identification of tolerable alternative analgesics is crucial for management in nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-sensitive patients. We investigated cross-reactivity of acetaminophen and celecoxib according to the type of aspirin/NSAID hypersensitivity and aimed to determine the risk factors for cross-intolerance. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of p...