Treatment of mercury intoxication with dimercaptopropanesulfonate.
Treatment of mercury toxicity is controversial and not well studied. Currently there are several proposed methods of chelation and subsequent removal of mercury from the body, including dimercaptopropanesulfonate, dimercaptosuccinic acid, intravenous vitamin C and edetate. Although many of these methods are not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, they are being used with modest success. Because of the lack of information regarding treatment outcomes, Medical-Dental Pharmacy performed a retrospective analysis of 28 randomly selected patients for whom we had suppplied dimercaptopropanesulfonate in the last 6 months. Dimercaptopropanesulfonate is used to treat mercury toxicity and as provacation to perform mercury testing. Two of the 28 selected patients who received the prescription decided against treatment. Of the remaining 26 patients, 8 patients were using dimercaptopropanesulfonate for treatment with varying success. Overall, this retrospective study shows that dimercaptopropanesulfonate is a safe and effective agent to use for initial mercury level testing.
Medical-Dental Pharmacy, Fresno, California.
Barry
B
Smith
Patrick
P
Golden
Carrie
C
Pingree