Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
-
Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
N-acetylcysteine regimens for paracetamol overdose: Time for a change?
Paracetamol overdose is one of the commonest pharmaceutical poisonings in the world. For nearly four decades, intravenous acetylcysteine regimens have been used to treat most patients successfully and prevent or mitigate hepatotoxicity. ⋯ Recent studies show that distributing the loading-dose of acetylcysteine over the first few hours of treatment may decrease the incidence of adverse reactions. In addition, varying the duration of acetylcysteine administration may potentially benefit certain cohorts of poisoned patients, depending on their risk of developing hepatotoxicity.