Methotrexate Toxicity from Unintentional Dosing Errors: Calls to a Poison Center and Death Descriptions

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Characteristics of Methotrexate Ingestions by Humans

Characteristic	Number	%
Total calls of ingestions	111	100
Sex
Male	32	29
Female	79	71
Age (years)
0 to 18	15	14
19 to 40	15	14
41 to 60	34	31
61 to 80	36	32
81 to 100	8	7
Not listed/unknown	3	3
Ingestion type
Intentional	23	21
Unintentional	88	79
Unintentional subtype
Dose error	13	15
One extra dose	40	45
Multiple extra doses	27	31
Pediatric exploratory	8	9
Medication indication listed	69	62
Rheumatoid arthritis	38	55
Crohn's disease	5	7
Psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis	14	20
Other disease	12	17
Treatment
Leucovorin treatment	34
Intentional ingestion	12	35
Unintentional ingestion	22	65
Sodium bicarbonate	18
Activated charcoal	6
Blood products	4
Steroids	1
Granulocyte stimulating factor	2
Course
Ingestions admitted to hospital	41
Intentional ingestion	17	41
Unintentional—dose error	2	5
Unintentional—one extra dose	11	27
Unintentional—multiple extra doses	8	20
Unintentional—ediatric exploratory	3	7
Admitted and leucovorin treatment	31	28
Intentional ingestion	12	39
Unintentional ingestion	19	61
Recorded signs of toxicity	12	11
Death	2	2