J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2001 Dec;12(4):475-479.

Antioxidant Therapy of the Paraquat Intoxication

• Kwon WY
• Jo YH
• Song HG
• Kim MC
• Rhee JE
• Suh GJ
• Youn YK

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Paraquat causes severe tissue toxicity when ingested, but has no effective treatment modality. We have shown that high dose vitamin C has effective antioxidant activities against the paraquat intoxication in a previous animal experiment. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of antioxidant therapy with high dose vitamin C and vitamin E in human cases of paraquat intoxication.
METHODS
From August 1999 to August 2001, 19 paraquat intoxication patients who visited the emergency department of the Seoul National University Hospital and the Kyounghee University Hospital were enrolled to this study. They were devided into two groups, a control group(9 patients) and a study group(10 patients). The control group received only conservative managements including gastro-intestinal decontaminati-on. The study group received conservative managements plus the antioxidant therapy which was composed of vitamin C 24 gm/day intravenously and 20 gm/day orally, and vitamin E 1.6 gm/day orally.
RESULTS
In the study group, 5 of 10 patients(50%) survived, but all patients of the control group died(p=0.003). There were no significant differences in age, sex, and usage of gastric lavage and activated charcoal between the two groups. Difference in ingested amount of paraquat between the two groups could not be analyzed due to the inexact and subjective measuring methods based on patients'histories.
CONCLUSION
Antioxidant therapy with high dose vitamin C and vitamin E is effective in improving survival rate in paraquat intoxicated patients.

Keyword

Antioxidant therapy; Vitamin C; Vitamin E; Paraquat intoxication

MeSH Terms

Animal Experimentation
Ascorbic Acid
Charcoal
Emergency Service, Hospital
Gastric Lavage
Humans
Paraquat*
Seoul
Survival Rate
Vitamin E
Vitamins
Ascorbic Acid
Charcoal
Paraquat
Vitamin E
Vitamins