Abstract

GIRALDO¹, Jaime Andrés; BERROUET, Marie Claire  and  CARDENAS, Juan Fernando. Lithium poisoning. CES Med. [online]. 2016, vol.30, n.1, pp.129-134. ISSN 0120-8705.

Acute lithium intoxication is a rare entity in our environment but serious and potentially fatal. According to world literature about 75-90 % of patients with chronic lithium carbonate therapy can have toxic levels during treatment. This drug is widely use in Colombia as a stabilizer of affection, is effective for the treatment of bipolar disorder among other treatments. It has very narrow therapeutic ranges which favors present acute and chronic toxicity. Most systems are compromised: neurological, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular. It is important for all doctors who work in the emergency room, whether General Practitioner or Emergency Medicine thinking in this situation. In a patient with risk factors and therapy with this drug is essential to guide appropriate therapy, discard differential diagnosis and thus avoid consequences that may become long-term irreversible. We report a case of toxicity with Lithium in a patient arriving at a hospital of high complexity.

Keywords : Lithium; Neurotoxicity syndrome; Chronic toxicity.

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