Near fatal iron intoxication managed conservatively

Abstract

We report here the case of an infant who presented to the emergency department after unintentional ingestion of almost 130 mg/kg of elemental iron. The infant had evidence of serious toxicity in the form of hypotension, metabolic acidosis and excessive irritability. Her serum iron levels were 360 μg/dl, which was well above the normal range for her age. Despite such high serum levels, the infant made an uneventful recovery with medical management alone and did not require exchange transfusion. We chose to report this case to highlight her uneventful recovery with conservative therapy alone. Copyright 2013 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.