Four children with colchicine poisoning.
Colchicine poisoning is a rare event. It is characterized by multiorgan involvement and by poor prognosis associated with overdose. In this article we present four children with colchicine poisoning to emphasize that colchicine poisoning has a large spectrum in childhood. The children's ages ranged between 1 year and 3.5 years. The ingested dosage of colchicine was between 0.37 and 1.72 mg/kg. Most of the findings of colchicine poisoning such as gastrointestinal symptoms, hepatotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, bone marrow suppression, hypocalcaemia and hair loss were diagnosed in our patients. Two children receiving 0.37 mg/kg and 1 mg/kg colchicine and admitted 13 and 19 hours after poisoning, respectively, died. Our findings suggest that in addition to amounts of the drug, mortality was also related to the duration between drug ingestion and admission to hospital.
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Yüzüncü Yil University, Van, Turkey. bulentatas@hotmail.com
Bülent
B
Ataş
Hüseyin
H
Caksen
Oğuz
O
Tuncer
Ercan
E
Kirimi
Cihangir
C
Akgün
Dursun
D
Odabaş
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003078:Colchicine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000506:poisoning*; D062787:Drug Overdose; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male
D003078:Colchicine