Intubation and salicylate overdose

We read with interest the recent paper discussing the use of hemodialysis in intubated salicylate-poisoned patients [1]. While we commend the authors for attempting to refine the indications for hemodialysis in salicylate poisoning, we wish to emphasize some of the limitations of their retrospective poison center chart review. Although the authors correctly remind readers of the precarious relationship between pH and brain salicylate concentrations so elegantly described by Hill in the 1970s [2], their dataset does not provide the requisite blood gas results required to correctly interpret the clinical ramifications of their patients' salicylate concentrations.
Source: The American Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: research