The Management of Agitated Toxidromes
Sophie Gosselin1, Robert S Hoffman2
1Centre Intégré de Santé et de Services Sociaux (CISSS), Montérégie-Centre Emergency Department, Hôpital Charles-Lemoyne, 3120 Boulevard Taschereau, Greenfield Park, Québec J4V 2H1, Canada; Centre Antipoison du Québec, Québec, Canada; Department of Emergency Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada.
Abstract:
Taking care of patients with agitated toxidromes can be challenging. While many will be able to be discharged from the emergency department or transferred to psychiatry following brief and simple interventions others will have life-threatening toxicity. Health care providers must develop an organized approach to the assessment and management of these patients that includes foremost the protection of the patient and staff from physical harm, prompt pharmacologic control to allow rapid assessment for life-threatening abnormalities such as hypoglycemia and hyperthermia and optimal cooling of patients with extreme temperature elevations.
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