10 Errores Graves en el Manejo del Paciente Intoxicado

Abstract

Introduction: The patient with severe intoxication is a challenge for any physician due to the inherent acuity of the situation and the pitfalls encountered in terms of proper management, such as the identification of the toxic agent to neutralize, sometimes in circumstances where the history and physical examination will be incomplete. Objective: Identify common pitfalls interfering with key aspects of management of severely intoxicated patients and establish evidence-based recommendations on how to avoid these common issues. Method: The PUBMED/MEDLINE database was searched for papers related to pitfalls in the management of poisoned patients between 2001 and 2021, with the following keywords in title or abstract: “errors” and “diagnosis” and “management” and “poisoning” and “patient”. At the same time, articles from the author’s personal database were deliberately selected. Results: Seventeen papers from PUBMED/MEDLINE that met the selection criteria were selected and an additional 20 articles were included from the authors’ database. Conclusion: The most important characteristics of pitfalls concerning the treatment of severely intoxicated patients were identified and recommendations for key aspects of management and pitfall avoidance were formulated. Keywords: Critical ill patient, toxyndromes, antidote, poisoning.