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W. Leigh Thompson, MD
Case Western Reserve University Cleveland

Seth E. Anderson, Jr, MD
National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md

James J. Lipsky, MD; Paul S. Lietman, MD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore

JAMA. 1975;234(2):149-150.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Recently, we have become aware of five patients who inadvertently received ten times the intended dose of chloramphenicol. In each of these cases, the origin of the problem was reported to be a misinterpretation of a new labeling of chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin) sodium succinate vials.

The first patient was a 70-year-old woman from Georgia who received an initial 20-gm dose and died 11 hours later. The second patient is a 26-year-old woman from Ohio who received an initial 1-gm dose followed in 7 and 12 hours by two 10-gm doses. Although she was well three hours after the last dose, five hours later severe shock quickly developed with low filling pressures, cyanosis, and coma. The patient responded slowly to fluids and dopamine, without residua. Plasma chloramphenicol measured by an enzymologic assay 5 1/2 hours after the last dose and during shock was 201µg/ml. The third patient is a . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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