PREVENTION OF TOXICITY FROM ORAL COCAINE BY ACTIVATED-CHARCOAL IN MICE

Study objective: To study the effectiveness of activated charcoal in p reventing toxicity after an enterally administered cocaine hydrochlori de overdose in mice. Design: A prospective, randomized, controlled ani mal laboratory investigation.Interventions: Fasted mice were given aqu eous cocaine hydrochloride (0.8% final concentration) 100 mg/kg body w eight orally by gavage tube. One minute later, animals received one of three treatments by gavage: 1 g activated charcoal/kg body weight, 2 g activated charcoal/kg body weight, or an equivolume of water (contro l). All treatments consisted of 20 mL/kg body weight of an activated c harcoal slurry with water. Measurements: After 24-hour observation, pr oportions of seizures and deaths between each group were compared usin g Pearson chi2 test followed by Fisher's exact test (P < .017 for sign ificance after Bonferroni's correction). Main results: There were 20 s eizures and 16 deaths in the control group (20 mice). There were four seizures (P = .0004) and one death (P = .0004) in the 1-g activated ch arcoal/kg group (ten mice) and five seizures (P = .0018) and three dea ths (P = .015) in the 2-g activated charcoal/kg group (ten mice). Conc lusion: In this mouse model, activated charcoal decreased the incidenc e of seizures and death after an enteral cocaine hydrochloride overdos e.