E-DRUG: rectal formulation of chloralhydrate (cont)
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I remember that we used rectal chloralhydrate for children with
convulsions when I worked in a mission hospital in Agogo, Ghana in the
seventies. It was a small quantity of the powder, depending on the
body weight of the child, which the pharmacy "prepacked" in empty
penicillin vials; at the moment the child needed it, we put some water
in it, sucked it up in a small rectal canula and gave it rectally. It
needed not be sterile, of course.
Please note that this is purely historical, and I do not think that
this treatment should still be recommended. There are now, of course,
much better drugs available to treat convulsions and I doubt whether
there is any justification for ready-made rectal chloralhydrate.
Hans Hogerzeil
Email: hogerzeilh@who.ch
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Dear edruggists
About chloral hydrate as a rectal preparation for children: DANGER!!
In the BNF, No 33 page 155, it is stated that this substance should
not be used in children. And in the caution section:" Avoid contact
with skin and mucous membranes". In Prescrire International 1994, vol
3, no 11 page 79: " great areas surrounding this hypnotic, which has
never undergone adequate clinical assessment... the list of potential
problems should restrain prescribers from replacing a benzodiazepine
with chloral hydrate".
Hope this information could help.
Christophe Kopp
general practitioner, Paris, France
editor of Prescrire International
member of ISDB
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