Treatment of Severe Colchicine Overdose with Colchicine-Specific Fab Fragments

Abstract

T HE use of colchicine is limited by its toxicity, 1 and colchicine overdose is associated with a high mortality rate. Patients with early hemodynamic collapse due to colchicine overdose have particularly poor prognoses, 2,3 and there has been no effective treatment for this complication of severe colchicine intoxication. olchicine binds reversibly to tubulin, 5 and colchicine-specific antibodies have been shown to restore the activity of tubulin in vitro. ] e here describe the successful use of this treatment in a woman who had ingested 60 mg of colchicine in a suicide attempt.