Clinical Effects of Activated Charcoal Unavailability on Treatment Outcomes for Oral Drug Poisoned Patients

Table 7

Clinical outcomes of patients who may benefit from activated charcoal use.

	Charcoal-available period	Charcoal-unavailable period	p-value
	n=23	n=17
Aspiration pneumonia, n (%)	2 (8.7%)	1 (5.9%)	0.615
Endotracheal intubation, n (%)	1 (4.3%)	1 (5.9%)	>0.999
Endotracheal intubation after 4 hours from ED visit, n (%)	1 (4.3%)	0 (0%)	>0.999
Vasopressor, n (%)	0 (0%)	2 (11.8%)	0.174
Vasopressor after 4 hours from ED visit, n (%)	0 (0%)	1 (5.9%)	0.436
Mortality, n (%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	NA
Hospital admission, n (%)	8 (34.8%)	5 (29.4%)	0.072
ICU admission, n (%)	1 (4.3%)	3 (17.6%)	0.294
Prolonged ICU admission	1 (4.3%)	1 (5.9%)	>0.999

ICU: intensive care unit.
: (1) present within 2 hours of acute overdose, (2) GCS 13-15 on arrival, and (3) potential toxic ingestion.