Retrospective study of clinical features and prognosis of edaravone in the treatment of paraquat poisoning

Abstract To observe whether edaravone can protect organs and inhibit pulmonary fibrosis in patients with paraquat poisoning and to provide a method for clinical intervention for paraquat poisoning. Forty-four cases of paraquat poisoning were collected from March 2011 to December 2017 in our hospital. Eighteen cases from March 2011 to November 2013 did not receive edaravone treatment and were considered the control group, and 26 cases from January 2014 to December 2017 were treated with edaravone and were considered the observation group. Injuries to the central nervous system, heart, liver, kidney, and digestive system were evaluated on at 24 hours, 3 days, and 7 days after hospitalization. The expression of serum inflammatory factors (interleukin [IL]-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-α [TNF-α]) and oxidative stress correlation (superoxide dismutase [SOD] and malondialdehyde [MDA]) were assayed at 24 hours, 3 days, and 7 days after being hospitalized. After 7, 14, and 30 days, the changes in pathological lung characteristics in the 2 groups were assessed, and survival rates were calculated. Edaravone significantly increased the serum levels of SOD and obviously markedly reduce the serum levels of IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, and MDA in patients poisoned with paraquat (P < .05). Edaravone significantly protected the liver (P = .021), cardiovascular (P = .031), and renal (P = .028) organs of patients from paraquat poisoning-induced injury after 7 days but had no significant protection or improvement on respiratory and digestive tract damage. Edaravone delayed the occurrence of pulmonary fibrosis and increase the survival time of patients at 7 and 14 days (P < .05). However, the 1-month follow-up found that edaravone did not reduce pulmonary fibrosis (77.8% vs 73.1%, P = .615) and did not increase the survival rate of the patients (61.1% vs 65.3%, P = .853). Edaravone is beneficial for protecting the kidneys and liver from paraquat poisoning through reducing oxidative stress and inhibiting inflammatory response. It can also inhibit the pulmonary fibrosis process and prolong the survival time of the patients. However, no significant improvements were seen in the probability of pulmonary fibrosis and the survival rate.