Glyphosate surfactant herbicide poisoning and management

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.

Keywords: Gastric lavage; glyphosate; intravenous fat emulsion; poisoning; surfactant herbicide.