title: Prevention of toxicity from oral cocaine by activated charcoal in mice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the effectiveness of activated charcoal in preventing toxicity after an enterally administered cocaine hydrochloride overdose in mice.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective, randomized, controlled animal laboratory investigation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fasted mice were given aqueous cocaine hydrochloride (0.8% final concentration) 100 mg/kg body weight orally by gavage tube. One minute later, animals received one of three treatments by gavage: 1 g activated charcoal/kg body weight, 2 g activated charcoal/kg body weight, or an equivolume of water (control). All treatments consisted of 20 mL/kg body weight of an activated charcoal slurry with water.
  
  
  METHODS
  After 24-hour observation, proportions of seizures and deaths between each group were compared using Pearson chi 2 test followed by Fisher's exact test (P < .017 for significance after Bonferroni's correction).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 20 seizures and 16 deaths in the control group (20 mice). There were four seizures (P = .0004) and one death (P = .0004) in the 1-g activated charcoal/kg group (ten mice) and five seizures (P = .0018) and three deaths (P = .015) in the 2-g activated charcoal/kg group (ten mice).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this mouse model, activated charcoal decreased the incidence of seizures and death after an enteral cocaine hydrochloride overdose.
authors.affiliation: Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tomaszewski
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McKinney
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brent
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kulig
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000818:Animals; D002606:Charcoal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003042:Cocaine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000633:toxicity*; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D012640:Seizures / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D002606:Charcoal; D003042:Cocaine