Background Intoxications are a cause of potentially serious hospitalisations whose treatment is commonly based on the use of specific antidotes.

Purpose The objetive of the present study was to analyse the use of specific antidotes for the treatment of rare poisonings.

Material and methods Retrospective longitudinal study. The analysed period was between June 2013 and June 2015. The variables studied were: type of antidote, number of patients, sex, age, clinical outcome indication of intoxication and time from admission to drug administration.

Results 33 patients (57.7% male) were analysed, 10 of whom were dismissed due to lack of data, with a mean age of 48 years. Antidotes used were: silymarin (43.48%) for the treatment of mushroom poisoning, rabies immunoglobulin (17.39%) for prophylaxis after animal bites, botulinum antitoxin (13.04%) for the treatment of botulism food, absolute alcohol (8.7%) for the treatment of methanol and ethylene glycol poisoning, methylene blue (8.7%) for methaemoglobinaemia after poisoning spinach and ifosfamide encephalopathy, dantrolene (4.35%) for the treatment of neuroleptic malignant syndrome, pralidoxime (4.35%) after organophosphate poisoning (insecticide) and digoxin antibody (4.35%) after intoxication by this drug. In 13% of cases the poisoning was intentional and 87% were casual. For 95.65% of the cases evaluated the antidote was administered within the first 24 h after admission and diagnosis. In all cases, the antidote was effective for the specific treatment for which they were meant to be used. The average length of hospital stay after the start of treatment was 5.9 days.

Conclusion Administration of antidotes is largely in line with the indications described in the bibliography. The use of these drugs at the right time is critical to reverse the effect of intoxications for which they are indicated.

No conflict of interest.