The new Paul Combs t-shirt, unveiled at FDIC, and featuring the Toxic Twins, was a tremendous success. With a limited quantity of t-shirts still available, the Coalition will offer current members the opportunity to convert to a lifetime membership for only $20.00 and – receive a free t-shirt! Quantities are limited so don’t wait. This [...]
Read more ›Inhalation of fire smoke, occupational exposure, industrial accidents, suicide and murder attempts, accidental ingestion, chemical warfare, and terrorism are among the causes of acute cyanide poisoning, which can result in death in minutes to hours depending mainly on cyanide concentration and route of exposure. For the victim of acute cyanide poisoning, timely intervention with an antidote in addition to supportive care can be lifesaving. Timely intervention often entails administration of an antidote in the prehospital setting given the rapid development of toxicity. Timely intervention also often needs to be based on a presumptive diagnosis given the absence of a quick diagnostic test.
The need for empiric prehospital intervention for acute cyanide poisoning elevates the importance of the safety of a cyanide antidote. Ideally, a cyanide antidote harms neither poisoned patients nor non-poisoned patients in the event it is administered for a misdiagnosis. Moreover, a cyanide antidote optimally has safety and tolerability profiles conducive to use at the scene of an emergency where resources for management of antidote-associated toxicities and side effects are limited. The ideal cyanide antidote is also safe when administered in the context of multiple concurrent poisonings likely in a terrorist attack and in inhalation of smoke from structural fires, which is the most common cause of acute cyanide poisoning in the United States and other developed countries. The Cyanide Antidote Kit (also known as the Taylor kit, the Lilly kit, and the Pasadena kit), which is the only cyanide antidote available in the United States to date, lacks these characteristics.
