Specific antidotes
a. Organochlorine poisoning:
- The patient is induced to vomiting and given universal antidotes; the patient can be given phenol-barbitol @ 0.7 gm/day.
- If not recovered 10% calcium gluconate injection (10 cc) is administered intravenously. The patient should be given carbohydrate-containing diet to check liver damage.
b. Organophosphate poisoning:
- The patient is allowed to induced vomiting, administered artificial, respiration and atropine sulfate is given intravenously.
- Protopam chloride (2 PAM) is administered to reactivate cholinesterase and other antidotes such as morphine, epinephrine or barbiturate are never used.
c. Carbamate poisoning:
- After induced vomiting, the patient is given Atropine sulfate 2 mg intravenously and then repeated after 5-10 minutes intervals. 2-PAM is not effective as it cannot decarbamylate the inhibited ache.
- Drugs like epinephrine are not given as heart muscles become sensitive.
d. Nicotine poisoning:
- Universal antidote and gastric lavage should from the earliest part of treatment.
- Potassium permanganate (1:10,000) can be used in lavage fluid to inactivate the alkaloids. Intravenous Diazepam therapy may be required to bring to sedation if victim exhibits convulsions.
- Patients surviving more than a few hours are likely to recover since nicotine is fairly metabolized rapidly to fewer toxic metabolites.
e. Arsenical poisoning:
- Universal antidote and gastric lavage is commonly followed in arsenical poisoning.
- The patient is given 225 gm of sodium bicarbonate, 28 gm of magnesium sulfate (Epsom) diluted in one liter of water.
- The poisoning may be cheated by BAL (dimercaprol) given intravenously.
f. Zinc phosphide poisoning:
- The victim is allowed vomiting by drinking a glass of warm water with one teaspoonful mustard powder.
- After the vomiting has stopped, he is given five grams of potassium permanganate dissolved in a glass of warm water.
- Ten minutes later a teaspoonful of copper sulfate in a glass of water is given.
- After fifteen minutes this is followed by on teaspoonful of magnesium sulfate (Epson) in a glass of water.