Chloral hydrate poisoning

The intentional ingestion of 5 g of chloral hydrate by a 67-yr-old man resulted in cardiac arrhythmia including tachyarrhythmia and polymorphic ventricular extrasystoles. As the ingested agent was unknown at admission, the patient was treated among others with sodium lactate, a non validated therapy of arrhythmia caused by chloral hydrate overdose. The discontinuation of arrhythmia was in favour of a beneficial effect of this treatment which remains to be confirmed. This unusual therapy is the original point of this case report which allows to question the so-called innocuousness of chloral hydrate, to remind the conventional treatment of the arrhythmias caused by this agent, the place of beta-adrenergic blockers, as well as the therapeutic difficulties when the causative agent remains unknown.