Prehospital activated charcoal: the way forward

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 determine the current attitudes of ambulance NHS trusts to recent recommendations that the admini...

The potential role of prehospital administration of activated charcoal.

OBJECTIVES Activated charcoal is now the mainstay of non-specific treatment for self poisoning in accident and emergency (A&E) departments and should be administered within one hour of ingestion of an overdose. This study aimed to investigate if compliance with treatment guidelines may be improved by the prehospital administration of activated charcoal. METHOD Ambulance report forms and case ...

Feasibility of prehospital treatment with activated charcoal: Who could we treat, who should we treat?

OBJECTIVES To investigate the feasibility and potential risk benefit of prehospital administration of activated charcoal. METHODS Review of deliberate self poisoning presentations to the emergency department (ED) of a toxicology unit by ambulance over six years. Data were extracted from a standardised prospective database of poisonings. Outcomes included: number of patients attended by ambula...

health scope in iran: the way forward

The Way Forward Is the Way Back

“T viewer should see the object as I saw it, but with a lot of room for his own interpretation....The painting is like a very clear mirror which is barely visible but unmistakably there,” reflects Spanish painter Antonio López García (b. 1936) (1). “I am nostalgic for an art of our times in which a greater number of people can participate” (1). Part of a contemporary movement rooted in the trad...