Signs and symptoms: Acute overdose as well as long-term treatment with too high a dose of Glibenclamide may lead to severe, protracted, life-threatening hypoglycemia.
Management: As soon as an overdose of Glibenclamide has been discovered, a physician must be notified without delay. The patient must immediately take glucose, if possible in the form of glucose, unless a physician has already undertaken responsibility for treating the overdose.
Careful monitoring is essential until the physician is confident that the patient is out of danger. It must be remembered that hypoglycemia and its clinical signs may recur after initial recovery.
Admission to hospital may sometimes be necessary-even as precautionary measure. In particular, significant overdoses and severe reactions with signs such as loss of consciousness or other serious neurological disorders are medical emergencies and require immediate treatment and admission to hospital.
If, for example, the patient is unconscious, an intravenous injection of concentrated glucose solution is indicated (for adults starting with 40 ml of 20% solution, for example). Alternatively in adults, administration of glucagon, e.g. in doses of 0.5 to 1 mg i.v., s.c. or i.m. may be considered.
In particular when treating hypoglycemia in infants and young children, the dose of glucose given must be very carefully adjusted in view of the possibility of producing dangerous hyperglycemia, and must be controlled by close monitoring of blood glucose.
Patients who have ingested life-threatening amounts of Glibenclamide require of detoxification (e.g. by gastric lavage and medicinal charcoal).
After acute glucose replacement has been completed, it is usually necessary to give an intravenous glucose infusion in lower concentration so as to ensure that the hypoglycemia does not recur. The patient's blood glucose level should be carefully monitored for at least 24 hours. In severe cases with a protracted course, hypoglycemia, or the danger of slipping back into hypoglycemia, may persist for several days.
Sign Out