Treatment of Methaqualone overdose with resin hemoperfusion

We recently utilized the technique of resin hemoperfusion (employing an Amberlite XAD-4 resin cartridge) to remove drug from a patient i deep coma after an estimated ingestion of greater than 4.5 grams of methaqualone. At plasma flow rates of 204 ml/min, the mean value for plasma clearance of methaqualone was 179 ml/min. The amount of methaqualone recovered from the cartridge at the end of the 10-hour procedure was 1,565 mg measured by gas chromatography. The patient became responsive to deep pain by the end of the procedure. The only complication encountered was a transient decrease in the formed blood elements. The present study verifies that a large, pharmacologically significance quantity of methaqualone can be removed in a short time using resin hemoperfusion.