Treatment of severe tricyclic antidepressant overdose with extracorporeal sorbent detoxification.

Tricyclic overdose can be a medical emergency, and therapy with intravenous bicarbonate is not always successful in preventing cardiac toxicity or coma. Mortality in patients developing these complications is from 1% to 15%. Extracorporeal detoxification with sorbents has been used in treatment of patients with very high drug levels and declining clinical condition.