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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2020; 41(05): 770-772
DOI: 10.4103/ijmpo.ijmpo_116_20
Practitioner Section

A Case of Accidental Vincristine Overdose and Effective use of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange in Its Management

Hari Goyal
1   Department of Medical Oncology, Artemis Hospital, Gurugram, Haryana, India
,
Anil Khetarpal
2   Department of Blood Bank and Transfusion Medicine, Artemis Hospital, Gurugram, Haryana, India
,
Amit Jain
1   Department of Medical Oncology, Artemis Hospital, Gurugram, Haryana, India
› Author Affiliations Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Abstract

Vincristine is a common drug used in hematological malignancy with a maximum per dose limited to 2 mg mainly to limit neurotoxicity. Vincristine overdose and wrong route of administration, though has been reported in world literature, but its appropriate management is still undefined. We report a case of Hodgkin lymphoma being treated with adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine protocol, where vincristine was accidently administrated instead of vinblastine due to its “look-alike, sound-alike” nature. The patient developed severe toxicity due to the same, which was effectively managed by therapeutic plasma exchange.

Keywords

Look-alike - sound-alike drugs - medication error - overdose - therapeutic plasma exchange - vincristine


Publication History

Received: 30 March 2020

Accepted: 29 May 2020

Article published online:
17 May 2021

© 2020. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

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