Phenytoin and Multidose Activated Charcoal

Emory University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Phenytoin Toxicity

Treatments: Drug: Activated Charcoal

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00823264

IRB00008017

Details and patient eligibility

About

Phenytoin is a medicine used to treat seizures. If too much is taken, patients have ill effects including sleepiness, unsteady gait, and eye problems. The amount of drug in their system can be measured in their blood. Charcoal is a medicine that can absorb phenytoin. We want to see if giving multiple doses of charcoal will quicken the removal of phenytoin from the blood. This is theorized to occur as charcoal absorbs phenytoin from across the intestines and then is secreted in the stool. Patients will be selected to receive either charcoal in multiple doses or no charcoal and their serum levels will be drawn repeatedly to follow their level. The different groups will then be compared to see if multidose charcoal does indeed increase the elimination of phenytoin from the body.

Full description

See above

Enrollment: 17 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Phenytoin level > 30 mg/L

Exclusion criteria

• Age < 18
• Known allergy to Activated Charcoal
• Pregnant
• Inability to take PO drugs
• Non English speaking
• Inability to give consent
• Any prisoners

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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17 participants in 2 patient groups

Multiple Doses of Activated Charcoal

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will receive 50 grams of activated charcoal by mouth every 4 hours until phenytoin levels drop below 25 ug/cc

Treatment:

Drug: Activated Charcoal

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Will not receive activated charcoal. Serum levels will be followed.