Medical Must-See: Mother’s mishap leads to 10-fold diazoxide overdose in newborn
The boy had been prescribed the drug for perinatal stress-induced hyperinsulinism.
A preterm baby fresh out of hospital was rushed back the next day for a diazoxide overdose after his mother accidentally administered 10 times the prescribed dose, report US doctors.
The 10-fold dosing error is a common one among babies and is often related to a shifted decimal point, the doctors say.
The boy — who was born at 32 weeks’ gestation — was prescribed diazoxide (8mg/kg/day) and chlorothiazide (10mg/kg/day) divided every 12 hours for perinatal stress-induced hyperinsulinism.
On the day of discharge from the NICU, the month-old infant was given the appropriate 50mg/mL morning dose of oral diazoxide in the hospital.
