Treatment of severe drug overdosage with charcoal hemoperfusion.

Mortality from severe poisoning remains excessively high in patients managed conservatively. In this report, charcoal hemoperfusion was used as a therapeutic aid to active drug removal in 10 patients (9 of whom were in Grade IV coma) intoxicated with a variety of drugs and a further 3 patients poisoned with the highly lethal herbicide, paraquat. All 10 patients who ingested drugs recovered. One of the 3 patients ingesting paraquat survived. The hemoperfusion treatments were associated with demonstrated drug removal. Complications associated with hemoperfusion were minor. Decreases in platelet levels were observed but were not accompanied by clinically important bleeding. The technique of hemoperfusion is simple and provides a therapeutic aid in the care of the severely poisoned patient.