Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine

Register      Login

SEARCH WITHIN CONTENT

FIND ARTICLE

Volume / Issue

Online First

Archive
Related articles

VOLUME 18 , ISSUE 5 ( May, 2014 ) > List of Articles

CASE REPORT

Glyphosate surfactant herbicide poisoning and management

Dnyaneshwar P. Mutkule, Pradeep M. Venkategowda, Kranthi Mahendrakar

Keywords : Gastric lavage, glyphosate, intravenous fat emulsion, poisoning, surfactant herbicide

Citation Information : Mutkule DP, Venkategowda PM, Mahendrakar K. Glyphosate surfactant herbicide poisoning and management. Indian J Crit Care Med 2014; 18 (5):328-330.

DOI: 10.4103/0972-5229.132508

License: CC BY-ND 3.0

Published Online: 01-10-2005

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2014; The Author(s).


Abstract

Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide in agriculture, forestry, industrial weed control and aquatic environments. Glyphosate potential as herbicide was first reported in 1971. It is a non-selective herbicide. It can cause a wide range of clinical manifestations in human beings like skin and throat irritation to hypotension, oliguria and death. We are reporting a case of a 35-year-old male patient who was admitted to our tertiary care hospital following intentional ingestion of around 200 ml of herbicide containing glyphosate. Initially, gastric lavage done and the patient was managed with intubation and mechanical ventilation, noradrenaline and vasopressin infusion, continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration and intravenous (IV) lipid emulsion (20% intralipid 100 ml), patient was successfully treated and discharged home. This case report emphasizes on timely systemic supportive measure as a sole method of treatment since this poison has no known specific antidote and the use of IV lipid emulsion for a successful outcome.


PDF Share
  1. Giesey JP, Dobson S, Solomon KR. Ecotoxicological risk assessment for roundup herbicide. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol 2000;167:35-120.
  2. Bates N, Campbell A. Glyphosate. In: Campbell A, editor. Handbook of Poisoning in Dogs and Cat. 1 st ed. England: Blackwell Science Ltd.; 2000. p. 135-8.
  3. Cheng JC, Cheng MC. Glyphosate intoxication in 28 patients. Ann Emerg Med 1995;26:721.
  4. Sawada Y, Nagai Y, Ueyama M, Yamamoto I. Probable toxicity of surface-active agent in commercial herbicide containing glyphosate. Lancet 1988;1:299.
  5. Lee CH, Shih CP, Hsu KH, Hung DZ, Lin CC. The early prognostic factors of glyphosate-surfactant intoxication. Am J Emerg Med 2008;26:275-81.
  6. Stella J, Ryan M. Glyphosate herbicide formulation: A potentially lethal ingestion. Emerg Med Australas 2004;16:235-9.
  7. Han SK, Jeong J, Yeom S, Ryu J, Park S. Use of a lipid emulsion in a patient with refractory hypotension caused by glyphosate-surfactant herbicide. Clin Toxicol (Phila) 2010;48:566-8.
PDF Share
PDF Share

© Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) LTD.