J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2000 Sep;11(3):352-361.

Effect of IV Saline or Glucose Solution Load on the Clearance of Alcohol in Acute Alcohol Intoxication

• Kim WY
• Lee SL
• Ahn JY
• Ahn SH
• Ryu SY
• Kim KH
• Kim HY

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In emergency departments, there are many drunken patients with various emergency medical situations. In these patients, evaluation and management of the medical problems are delayed from time to time because of the uncooperative nature of the patients and because of consciousness and sensory changes. A precise evaluation can only be obtained when the patients become sober. For this purpose, most clinicians start IV fluid loading. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of IV fluid(normal saline and glucose solution) on the rate of ethanol clearance in such patients.
METHODS
Ten volunteers(healthy males in their twenties and with a Michigan alcohol screening test below 4) were enrolled in this study. Alcohol intake was restricted to at least 48 hours before the test and food intake to at least 4 hours. For the test, A predetermined dose of ethanol(1gm/kg) was given to the volunteers. Each volunteer was tested on three consecutive times with 3 or more days interval for alcohol wash out period. On the 1st day, the volunteers received ethanol only per os. On the second day, they received ethanol and a liter of IV normal saline. On the third day, they received ethanol and a liter of IV 10% dextrose solution. Each day, blood was drawn from the antecubital vein to measure the ethanol level at the time of ethanol ingestion and at 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 hours after ingestion. The repeated measure ANOVA test was used for the statistical analysis.
RESULTS
The difference in the blood ethanol level between the 3 test was F=1.7, p=0.184, and the difference corrected by the time factor was F=0.32, and p=0.985.
CONCLUSION
There was no significant difference in the blood ethanol level between the tests. In conclusion, the IV normal saline or glucose solution does not accelerate ethanol clearance in suffering from acute alcohol intoxication.

MeSH Terms

Consciousness
Eating
Emergencies
Emergency Service, Hospital
Ethanol
Glucose*
Humans
Male
Mass Screening
Michigan
Time Factors
Veins
Volunteers
Ethanol
Glucose