Container residue after the administration of aqueous activated charcoal products

Commercial aqueous activated charcoal (AC) products may sit in emergency departments, pharmacies, and homes for prolonged periods resulting in the inability to resuspend the AC for patient administration. The potential risk to the patient from not receiving an adequate amount of AC, especially when AC may be the sole means of gastric decontamination, is obvious. To simulate this potential problem, samples of five different aqueous AC products (ActaChar, Actidose, InstaChar, LiquiChar, and SuperChar) were placed into storage for periods of 3 and 12 months. At the end of each study period, samples were agitated and the effluent and container residue were collected, oven-dried, and weighed. With the exception of Actidose, all products retained substantial amounts of AC in the container at both time intervals. These data stress the negative impact of dormant storage on the resuspendability of aqueous activated charcoal products. Furthermore, they suggest the importance of thorough container agitation and rinsing to insure that the patient receives sufficient AC. This is especially important when AC is the sole means of decontamination.