Drug overdoses: Is one stomach washing enough?

Naso-gastric tube aspirates were taken from patients with drug overdoses who had been given a gastric lavage and admitted to the resuscitation ward. Although care was taken to conduct thorough washouts, it was found that these were not always efficient. In several cases an amount equivalent to a therapeutic dose of drug was recovered in later aspirates. There was no correlation between the amount of drug recovered in the initial stomach washings and that found in the aspirates. It was concluded that routine aspiration of gastric contents at hourly intervals after admission was of considerable value in removing any residual drugs.