Severe Colchicine Intoxication: A Case Report and Review of Literature in Adults

Colchicine is used in the treatment of multiple diseases such as gout and auto-immune diseases. Although cases of multiorgan failure have been described in adults with doses usually higher than 0.8 mg/kg, the epidemiology data are scarce and the intoxication mechanisms are not well-known. The authors present the case of a 66-year-old male patient, with a medical history of depression, admitted to the emergency room (ER) due to intentional colchicine ingestion after taking 90 mg (approximately 1.125 mg/kg) 12 hours prior to medical evaluation. Besides some dizziness and sleepiness, he showed no other alteration in the physical examination. After the administration of activated charcoal, he was transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU). The laboratory findings showed mild hepatic dysfunction, acute kidney injury, and metabolic lactic acidosis. Despite treatment, severe clinical worsening with multiorgan failure, including respiratory failure complicated with multiple episodes of cardiac dysrhythmias and finally with persistent cardiac arrest, lead to the patient’s death after 13 hours of admission in the ER. Among drug intoxications, high doses of colchicine ingestion can lead to rapid multiorgan dysfunction, and patients with a severe overdose can experience irreversible multiorgan failure without presenting the typical initial gastrointestinal symptoms. Thus, it is necessary for the physicians to be alert to these situations and to be aware of the epidemiological data and clinical profile of this specific poisoning that should be managed in ICU. The authors perform a review of the cases of colchicine poisoning reported in adults between 2017 and 2019 and the differences in clinical management and outcomes.