Continuing on the theme of Toxic Alcohols (osmolal gap, ethylene glycol, methanol), this Paucis Verbis card focuses on isopropyl alcohol toxicity, which is commonly found in rubbing alcohols. In this toxic alcohol, fomipezole is actually NOT indicated because you want to have alcohol dehydrogenase convert the toxic parent compound (isopropyl alcohol) into the nontoxic metabolite (acetone).

Note that these are merely guidelines and you should tailor management plans with your toxicologist and nephrologist.

PV Card: Isopropyl Alcohol Toxicity

Adapted from [1, 2]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

References

1. Kraut J, Kurtz I. Toxic alcohol ingestions: clinical features, diagnosis, and management. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2008;3(1):208-225. [PubMed]
2. Jammalamadaka D, Raissi S. Ethylene glycol, methanol and isopropyl alcohol intoxication. Am J Med Sci. 2010;339(3):276-281. [PubMed]

Continuing on the theme of Toxic Alcohols (osmolal gap, ethylene glycol), this Paucis Verbis card focuses on methanol toxicity. Useful are the American Academy of Clinical Toxicologists recommendations on when to administer an antidote (fomipezole) and when to perform hemodialysis. I redrew the flowchart based on what’s relevant to the ED in the initial stages.

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Following last week’s Paucis Verbis card on calculating the osmolal gap, here is the first installment of the Toxic Alcohols cards. First up — ethylene glycol. There are useful American Academy of Clinical Toxicologists recommendations on when to administer an antidote (fomipezole) and when to perform hemodialysis.

Here’s a quick review of the metabolism of the different toxic alcohols. The parent compounds for ethylene glycol and methanol are innocuous and the metabolites are toxic.

PV Card: Ethylene Glycol Toxicity

Adapted from [1-3]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

See Dr. Leon Gussow’s great review on The Poison Review and tips of a recent Annals of EM4 paper on identifying a small subset of patients with ethylene glycol who did well despite NOT receiving hemodialysis.

References

1. Kraut J, Kurtz I. Toxic alcohol ingestions: clinical features, diagnosis, and management. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2008;3(1):208-225. [PubMed]
2. Jammalamadaka D, Raissi S. Ethylene glycol, methanol and isopropyl alcohol intoxication. Am J Med Sci. 2010;339(3):276-281. [PubMed]
3. Marraffa J, Cohen V, Howland M. Antidotes for toxicological emergencies: a practical review. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2012;69(3):199-212. [PubMed]
4. Levine M, Curry S, Ruha A, et al. Ethylene glycol elimination kinetics and outcomes in patients managed without hemodialysis. Ann Emerg Med. 2012;59(6):527-531. [PubMed]

We often talk about calculating the anion gap in the evaluation of patients. What about the osmolal gap? When do you calculate this? What’s the differential diagnosis for an increased gap?

I recently came upon a nice 2011 review in the American Journal of Kidney Disease called “Approach to the evaluation of a patient with an increased serum osmolal gap and high-anion-gap metabolic acidosis”. It’s always nice to revisit and review this concept. You’ll always learn something new. For instance, I didn’t know that salicylates cause anion gaps as well as osmolal gaps.

So don’t forget to calculate an osmolal gap for patients with an unexplained metabolic acidosis anion gap.

PV Card: Approach to Osmolal Gap

Adapted from [1]
Go to ALiEM Cards for more resources.

Reference

1. Kraut J, Xing S. Approach to the evaluation of a patient with an increased serum osmolal gap and high-anion-gap metabolic acidosis. Am J Kidney Dis. 2011;58(3):480-484. [PubMed]