Gastrointestinal transit times of cathartics combined with charcoal

Edward P. Krenzelok, Ray Keller, Ronald D. Stewart

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

53 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Oral activated charcoal usually is administered in toxic ingestions along with a cathartic. A study was done in volunteers to determine the rapidity of gastrointestinal transit when activated charcoal was administered with various cathartics. A control of activated charcoal was compared to the gastrointestinal transit times of activated charcoal plus the cathartics magnesium citrate, magnesium sulfate, or sorbitol. Activated charcoal alone produced a mean transit time of 23.5 hours; magnesium citrate catharsis occurred in 4.2 hours, magnesium sulfate catharsis occurred in 9.3 hours, and sorbitol catharsis occurred in 0.9 hours. Sorbitol clearly was the most rapidly acting cathartic.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1152-1155
Number of pages4
JournalAnnals of Emergency Medicine
Volume14
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 1985
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Emergency Medicine

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