UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Toxicology

Title: N-acetylcysteine

Keywords: acetaminophen; acetylcysteine (PubMed Search)

Posted: 4/2/2010 by Ellen Lemkin, MD, PharmD (Updated: 3/29/2024)
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Recently, a toxicoeconomic study was done to compare length of stay and costs of hospitalization of a group who received
IV n-acetylcysteine (n=191) to those received oral n-acetylcysteine (n=70) prior to the availability of the intravenous formulation.
 
What they found was that patients treated with IV acetylcysteine had a decreased length of stay (4 days vs 7 days, p< 0.001) and cost of hospitalization ($7,607 vs $18,287,  p<0.001) compared to the enteral group.
 
 

References

Martello JL, Pummer TL, Krenzelok EP. Cost minimization analysis comparing enteral N-acetylcysteine to intravenous acetylcysteine in the management of acute acetaminophen toxicity. Clin Tox Jan 2010; 48(1):79-83