Acetaminophen overdoses in children can be life-threatening but are avoidable
2012-06-05
(Press-News.org) Acetaminophen, a widely available over-the-counter medication, can cause liver toxicity in children if doses are exceeded, and more public education is needed to warn of potential adverse effects, states an article published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
"Acetaminophen overdose is a major cause of acute liver failure and is the most common identifiable cause of acute liver failure in children," writes Dr. Rod Lim, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, with coauthors. "Repeated supratherapeutic dosing [above the recommended dose], accidental overdose due to error and intentional ingestion can all result in acute liver failure and even death."
The authors cite a case study of a 22-day-old baby in which the parents misunderstood the correct dose of acetaminophen and administered too much analgesic for a circumcision. After the procedure, when the doctor instructed the parents to give another dose, they discovered the error. In this case, N-acetylcysteine with dextrose was given intravenously, and the child recovered within about 24 hours after ingesting the medication.
N-acetylcysteine is the standard treatment for liver toxicity related to an overdose of acetaminophen and is usually successful if started within eight hours after ingesting the drug.
Medication errors involving children are a serious issue, and dosing is complicated by the need to dose by the child's weight and convert this dose to a volume because many medications for children are in liquid form. A report from the US poison control centres and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which analyzed 238 instances of serious medication errors in children under age six, found that 11% of children who are given pharmaceuticals experience a medication error such as an incorrect medication, incorrect dose or method of administering. Acetaminophen overdose was the most common single agent responsible for a life-threatening event, longer-term illness or death.
A better approach is needed to prevent these avoidable, and life-threatening, errors.
"Although physicians and pharmacists should continue to educate parents and caregivers regarding the medications prescribed, one-to-one communication cannot be the sole approach to reducing errors in medication administration," write the authors. "Error reduction on a large scale requires systems-based interventions and prevention."
Suggestions include better labelling and dosing information, improved dosing devices — many parents use spoons, which are not standard sizes and can lead to overdoses — and placing acetaminophen behind the counter to ensure that a pharmacist can counsel parents on correct dosing.
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-06-05
Canada should ban off-label use of antibiotics in farm animals because it contributes significantly to antibiotic resistance in humans, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Off-label use means using antibiotics for purposes other than those indicated on the label.
"Of greatest concern is the promotion of resistance to antibiotics that may currently represent the last resort for treating some highly resistant infections in humans," writes Barbara Sibbald, Deputy Editor, CMAJ.
Other countries and regions are far ahead of Canada in limiting ...
2012-06-05
MINNEAPOLIS – Contrary to earlier reports, a new study suggests that soy protein may not preserve overall thinking abilities in women over the age of 45, but may improve memory related to facial recognition. The study is published in the June 5, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"Soy is a staple of many traditional Asian diets and has been thought possibly to improve cognition in postmenopausal women," said study author Victor W. Henderson, MD, MS, with Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and a Fellow with ...
2012-06-05
Roughly 100,000 years ago, human evolution reached a mysterious bottleneck: Our ancestors had been reduced to perhaps five to ten thousand individuals living in Africa. In time, "behaviorally modern" humans would emerge from this population, expanding dramatically in both number and range, and replacing all other co-existing evolutionary cousins, such as the Neanderthals.
The cause of the bottleneck remains unsolved, with proposed answers ranging from gene mutations to cultural developments like language to climate-altering events, among them a massive volcanic eruption. ...
2012-06-05
UPTON, NY - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key elements in the biochemical mechanism plants use to limit the production of fatty acids. The results suggest ways scientists might target those biochemical pathways to increase the production of plant oils as a renewable resource for biofuels and industrial processes.
"Now that we understand how this system operates - how plants 'know' when they've made enough oil and how they slow down production - we can look for ways to break the feedback loop so they keep making ...
2012-06-05
SANTA CRUZ, CA--Giant insects ruled the prehistoric skies during periods when Earth's atmosphere was rich in oxygen. Then came the birds. After the evolution of birds about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller despite rising oxygen levels, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Insects reached their biggest sizes about 300 million years ago during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. This was the reign of the predatory griffinflies, giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of up to 28 inches (70 centimeters). ...
2012-06-05
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have identified an immune system deficiency whose presence shows someone is up to four times likelier to die than a person without it. The glitch involves an antibody molecule called a free light chain; people whose immune systems produce too much of the molecule are far more likely to die of a life-threatening illness such as cancer, diabetes and cardiac and respiratory disease than those whose bodies make normal levels. The study is published in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Researchers studied blood samples ...
2012-06-05
Rochester, MN, June 4, 2012 – Micah True, legendary ultra-marathoner, died suddenly while on a routine 12-mile training run March 27, 2012. The mythic Caballo Blanco in the best-selling book, Born to Run, True would run as far as 100 miles in a day. On autopsy his heart was enlarged and scarred; he died of a lethal arrhythmia (irregularity of the heart rhythm). Although speculative, the pathologic changes in the heart of this 58 year-old veteran extreme endurance athlete may have been manifestations of "Phidippides cardiomyopathy," a condition caused by chronic excessive ...
2012-06-05
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Nobody wins when patients stay in the hospital unnecessarily, so the federal government in recent years has pushed hospitals to be careful about admitting Medicare recipients as inpatients. The apparent result is that more patients are being "held for observation" instead, according to a new study by Brown University gerontologists. While the shift in how hospitals care for elderly patients in the emergency department may reduce costs to Medicare, it can also increase out-of-pocket expenditures for patients.
"The dual trends of increasing ...
2012-06-05
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The antidepressant drug duloxetine, known commercially as Cymbalta, helped relieve painful tingling feelings caused by chemotherapy in 59 percent of patients, a new study finds. This is the first clinical trial to find an effective treatment for this pain.
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect of certain chemotherapy drugs. The tingling feeling -- usually felt in the toes, feet, fingers and hands -- can be uncomfortable for many patients, but for about 30 percent of patients, it's a painful sensation. Previous studies have ...
2012-06-05
Pittsburgh, PA…An international team of researchers has announced the discovery of Afrasia djijidae, a new fossil primate from Myanmar that illuminates a critical step in the evolution of early anthropoids—the group that includes humans, apes, and monkeys. The 37-million-year-old Afrasia closely resembles another early anthropoid, Afrotarsius libycus, recently discovered at a site of similar age in the Sahara Desert of Libya. The close similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius indicates that early anthropoids colonized Africa only shortly before the time when these animals ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Acetaminophen overdoses in children can be life-threatening but are avoidable
