Suicidal paracetamol poisoning of a pregnant woman just before a delivery.

ABSTRACT

The aim of the paper is to present a case of self-poisoning with paracetamol, overdosed just before a delivery. A 21-year-old woman was admitted to Obstetric and Gynecology Ward of local hospital in the second stage of physiological delivery, more than 6 hours after she had ingested 19 g of acetaminophen for self-poisoning. She delivered a normal infant weighing 3520 g who had Apgar scores of 10, and then both infant and mother were sent in an emergency ambulance to the nearest poison centre. Blood samples for toxicological examination were taken on admission to toxicological intensive care unit i.e. 11 hours post maternal ingestion. Acetaminophen levels of both patients were above the acetaminophen overdose nomogram line and the antidote treatment, i.v. N-acetylcysteine was administered according to the protocol the mother within 11 hours post-ingestion and approximately 4 hours after a delivery; the neonate within 11 hours post maternal ingestion and 4 hours of life. Higher paracetamol concentration in the blood of infant compared to the mother's was noted in the first and then control toxicological examination performed within 35 hours post maternal ingestion. Peak maternal aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity was 326 U/L within 35 hours and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity was 262 U/L within 56 hours post-ingestion. The highest neonatal enzyme activity was noted within 11 hours post maternal ingestion of paracetamol, and the elevation was not high. Except moderate anaemia in the mother, no clinical or biochemical symptoms of renal, cardiovascular or CNS injury were stated in the mother or infant. Normalisation in the maternal enzymes activity was stated within 226 hours, while in the neonatal within 58 hours post maternal ingestion. The woman recovered without sequelae and was discharged from hospital on the 11th day following paracetamol overdosing. No evidence of the liver injury was found in the infant either.