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Roundup Intoxication

Herbicide Roundup Intoxication: Successful Treatment with Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy

Roundup (Monsanto Corporation, St. Louis, Mo) is a commercial herbicide containing glyphosate and surfactant, used primarily for killing weeds. Its key component, glyphosate, is a competitive inhibitor of the shikimate pathway, a metabolic pathway found only in plants.1 However, serious intoxication, including lethal cases by ingestion of Roundup, has been reported, with a mortality rate of 7%-30%.2, 3, 4 We describe a patient with a near-lethal case of Roundup intoxication with multiorgan system failure who recovered after continuous renal replacement therapy.

A 66-year-old Hispanic man with a history of non-insulin-dependent diabetes, hypertension, and alcohol abuse was brought to the Emergency Department unconscious after having ingested approximately 500 mL of rum and 350 mL of Roundup. He was in an argument with his wife and was purported to have gone to the shed in his backyard and accidentally mixed up his alcohol with Roundup. Approximately 2 hours later he was found to have altered mental status, an episode of non-bloody, non-bilious emesis, and was more difficult to arouse.

To read this article in its entirety, please visit our website.

— Billy T. Hour, MD, Cary Belen, DO, Tausif Zar, MD, Yeong-Hau H. Lien, MD, PhD

This article originally appeared in the August 2012 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

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