Scopolamine Treatment for Patients With Organophosphate Poisoning
Status:
Withdrawn
Trial end date:
2009-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Organophosphate (OP) compounds are a major threat as chemical warfare agents or in terrorist
act. OPs are also the active ingredient of many insecticides. Ingestion of insecticides is a
common cause of death among people who commit suicide in developing countries. OPs poisoning
also frequently occurs after accidental exposure to agricultural OPs and in children as a
result of unintentional ingestion.
The use of competitive inhibitors of acetylcholine other than atropine for patient with
organophosphate (OP) poisoning is controversial. Because scopolamines' ability to cross the
blood brain barrier is better than atropine, it has been suggested that scopolamine should be
used OP poisoned patients who have central nervous system (CNS) manifestations. However there
is controversy regarding its potential benefit in the treatment of organophosphate poisoning
in humans. To the best of our knowledge there are no randomised controlled studies on the use
of scopolamine in humans. This prospective randomised controlled study is aimed to determine
whether adding scopolamine to the standard treatment of atropine and oximes in patients with
CNS symptoms of OP poisoning improve the outcome.