[Acute poisoning due to barium chloride--case report].

We reported a case of 52-years-old male, suffering from alcohol dependence, who ingested 20-30 ml 10% barium chloride solution as a substitute of ethanol. We observed gastrointestinal disturbances (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), numbness and paresthesias of limbs, severe hypokalemia (1.29 mmol/l) resulting in general paralysis of skeleton muscles, dysarthria and dysphagia, ventricular arrhythmias. This patient was treated successfully with potassium chloride supplementation and was discharged after 9 days.