Source: Am J Obstet Gynecol  |  Posted 9 years ago

Patients who overdose on tricyclic antidepressants can be successfully treated with extracorporeal sorbent detoxification, despite the high risk for ventricular arrhythmias, seizures and death.

Reporting dramatic clinical improvement after treatment, researchers in West Lafayette, Indiana, Los Angeles, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, say that the improvement may be due either to removal of free drug from the blood or to removal of drug metabolites.

Tricyclic overdose can be a medical emergency, intravenous bicarbonate does not always prevent cardiac toxicity or coma. Up to 15 percent of patients who develop these complications die.

The researchers report the use of extracorporeal detoxification with sorbents to treat 10 patients with very high drug levels and declining clinical condition caused by tricyclics. Average level was 1,423