Citation

Hurley W, Wolterstorff C, MacDonald R, Schultz D. West. J. Emerg. Med. 2014; 15(4): 378-381.

Affiliation

Washington Poison Control Center, Seattle, Washington.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine)

DOI

10.5811/westjem.2014.4.16279

PMID

25035737

PMCID

PMC4100837

Abstract

We describe a case series of seven patients presenting to an emergency department with symptoms of paralytic shellfish poisoning. They developed varying degrees of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, ataxia and paresthesias after eating mussels harvested from a beach near their resort. Four patients were admitted to the hospital, one due to increasing respiratory failure requiring endotracheal intubation and the remainder for respiratory monitoring. All patients made a full recovery, most within 24 hours. The ability to recognize and identify paralytic shellfish poisoning and manage its complications are important to providers of emergency medicine.

Language: en