OXYGEN IN THE THERAPY OF CYANIDE POISONING

25 July 1959

journal article
research article
Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in JAMA

Vol. 170 (13) , 1585
https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1959.03010130089025

Abstract

To the Editor:— During experiments on sublethal intoxication of rats by intravenously given potassium cyanide (Levine and Wenk,J. Nerv. & Ment. Dis., to be published), slightly more cyanide was required to induce brain lesions if oxygen was administered than if the experiment was conducted in air. Further work on mice showed that the LD₅₀of potassium cyanide was slightly increased (10 to 20%) by administration of oxygen; survival time after fatal doses was increased also. These results suggested the possibility that oxygen might be useful in the therapy of cyanide poisoning. Textbooks on pharmacology and toxicology advise the nitrite and thiosulfate method of Chen and Rose (J. A. M. A.149:113, 1952;162:1154, 1956) as the treatment of choice. In most textbooks oxygen is not mentioned or is advised only when respiration has ceased and artificial respiration is required. Salter (Textbook of Pharmacology: Principles and Application

Keywords

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: