[Acute voluntary or accidental disopyramide poisoning. A multicentric study of 106 cases (author's transl)]

Between 1972 and 1978, 106 case-records of disopyramide poisoning were collected from French anti-poison center. Acute intoxication was voluntary in 90% of the cases and occurred in young adults. Clinical symptoms appeared early and consisted mostly of cardiovascular disorders, which were present in 60 patients: cardiogenic shock (24 cases), circulatory arrest (17 cases), atrio-ventricular block (21 cases), intraventricular block (24 cases) and severe ventricular arrhythmia (12 cases). The toxic dose in otherwise healthy adults was 1,5 g and the mortality rate was high (12,2%). An analysis of therapeutic measures and outcome indicated that the best treatment consists of early gastric lavage, cardiorespiratory manoeuvres, electric heart stimulation, administration of sodium lactate in cases with intraventricular conduction disturbances and isoprenaline in cases with cardiogenic shock.