[Treatment of acute chloroquine poisoning]

Acute chloroquine poisoning is life threatening with risk of death from apnoea and cardiac arrhythmia within a few hours of ingestion. Mechanical ventilation, infusion of pressor agents and large doses of diazepam seem to provide effective treatment. This treatment was introduced by Riou et alii (N Engl J Med 1988; 318; 1-6), and we used it successfully in a case of severe chloroquine poisoning. Intensive treatment was given during the first two days of intoxication, when the whole blood chloroquine phosphate concentration was high (more than 10 mumol/kg), corresponding to absorption from the gut and distribution to the organs. Hereafter the whole blood chloroquine phosphate concentration decreased increasingly slowly, probably due to equilibrium with tissue stores.