@article{ref1,
title="Activated charcoal: the untold story",
journal="Accident and emergency nursing",
year="2003",
author="Lynch, Richard M. and Robertson, Robert",
volume="11",
number="2",
pages="63-67",
abstract="Introduction. To identify the prevalence and appropriateness of prescribing activated charcoal in the management of acute poisoning and to document patient compliance with treatment. <br><br>METHODS. A prospective study was conducted, between October 1998 and September 1999, on patients attending our accident and emergency department, with a history of overdose. Overdoses were classified as potentially toxic or non-toxic according to the history and/or information received from the National Poisons Information Service. <br><br>RESULTS. Two hundred and seventy five patients presented following overdose; 17% within one hour, 102 were prescribed charcoal (37.1%) but of these, 40 (39%) refused it, and of the 62 patients (61%) who accepted charcoal only 15 (24.2%) took all that was prescribed. Patients were 5.4 times more likely to take charcoal if they had taken a potentially toxic overdose. Of those who presented within one hour and were judged to have taken a potentially toxic overdose, only three patients took the full-prescribed amount. <br><br>CONCLUSION. We report a substantially greater proportion of patients (39%) refusing charcoal than previously reported (9.9%). The widespread availability of TOXBASE© should help redress this discrepancy.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0965-2302",
doi="10.1016/S0965-2302(02)00201-1",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0965-2302(02)00201-1"
}