Elimination of paraquat

Abstract

There is a striking discrepancy between the efficacy of the kidneys, haemodialysis and haemoperfusion in removing paraquat from the body and the poor prognosis of paraquat poisoning even when the blood and urine concentrations (which are good indices of concentrations in lung and other tissues) are very low. Extracorporeal elimination techniques have been used world-wide in paraquat poisoning. Do they remove paraquat effectively? Certainly. Do they increase the survival rate? Probably not. The reason being that when these techniques of elimination are initiated, potentially lethal concentrations of paraquat have already been attained in the highly vascular tissues of vital organs and in pneumocytes. The data presented here suggest that the successful treatment of paraquat poisoning will not be achieved by modification of toxicokinetics.