title: [Management of the drunken patient].
abstract: Acute ethanol intoxication is frequent in emergency departments. The clinical presentation is highly variable and ranges from an inebriety to a coma and sometimes an agitated patient. You have to examine completely the patient and to do complementary exams with a capillary glycemia as the minimal standard. We must keep in mind that an acute ethanol intoxication is a diagnosis of exclusion. With trauma patients, we have to keep a low threshold for asking radiological advanced imaging, like cerebro-cervical CT scan. The patient should be reexamined frequently. The treatment is a supportive one. If the patient is agitated, you can give him haloperidol or a benzodiazepine. Before discharge, the patient should see the alcohologic team.
authors.affiliation: Département des urgences, Hôpital neuchâtelois, Maladière 45, 2000 Neuchâtel. line.wolter@h-ne.ch
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wolter
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Della Santa
mesh_terms: D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D001569:Benzodiazepines; D000431:Ethanol; D006220:Haloperidol