Citation

Gerard SK, Hernandez C, Khayam-Bashi H. Ann. Emerg. Med. 1988; 17(7): 728-731.

Affiliation

Department of Laboratory Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, California 94110.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, American College of Emergency Physicians, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3382076

Abstract

We describe a patient who survived a peak serum magnesium level of 9.5 mmol/L (23.0 mg/dL) after an oral cathartic overdose. The patient presented in coma but regained full consciousness over the next six hours with supportive therapy. His serum magnesium had returned to near-normal levels by the following morning at the time of his hospital discharge. This case represents an unprecedented extent of ingestion-related hypermagnesemia in a surviving patient, given that serum levels of more than 8 mmol/L are frequently associated with death from cardiac arrest.

Language: en