Liver Damage and Hypoglycemia in Acute Iron Poisoning

Abstract

A case is reported of a child who ingested an overdose quantity of ferrous sulfate and eventually died of acute liver failure. Acute Fe toxicity is usually divided into several phases: hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, an asymptomatic period of recovery and cardiovascular collapse, this phase usually resulting in death. In this case the child did not die during the commonly lethal phase of acute Fe poisoning, which would probably result in cardiovascular collapse, but suffered severe progressive liver failure complicated by pancreatic damage later on. Aggressive therapy allowed the child to survive the usually lethal 3rd period, cardiovascular collapse, only to succumb to liver deterioration which showed in episodes of recurrent hypoglycemia.