yellow oleander poisoning

Plant poisonings are especially common among South Asian countries like India and

Sri Lanka.  Yellow oleander (ThevetiaPeruviana), an ornamental tree common

throughout the tropics is the source of majority of plant poisonings in these

regions.  Ingestion of oleander seeds, which contains highly toxic glycosides

including thevetins A and B and neriifolin, hampers the cardiac muscle and

autonomic nervous system resulting in cardiac dysrthythmias, sinus and AV node block, bradycardia, vomiting diarrhoea, hyperkalemia etc

Treatment for yellowoleander poisoning includes resuscitation, antidotes, gastric decontamination,

activated charcoal, atropine, cardiac pacing and supportive care

Gastric decontamination is consistently used throughout South Asia as a means of

decontamination. The different methods of gastric decontamination include forced

emesis and gastric lavage. Activated charcoal works by adsorbing poison and in

reducing further absorption.Decontamination techniques for yellow oleander poisoning include forced emesis, gastric lavage and single or multiple doses of activated charcoal.
  

 

 Currently proposed treatment and their likely benefit:

Likely to be beneficial/

Recommended for treatment

Anti-digoxin FAB fragments

Multiple dose activated charcoal

Unlikely to be beneficial

Single dose activated charcoal

Unknown effectiveness/

Requiring further studies

Forced emesis

Gastric Lavage

Transvenous cardiac pacing