ACUTE INTOXICATION WITH VERAPAMIL

A healthy 18-year-old man was admitted to our unit two hours after a suicidal ingestion of 2 gm of verapamil. There was mild hypotension, depression of the sinus node, atrioventricular dissociation, changes of repolarization, and first-degree intranodal atrioventricular block (the His bundle electrogram revealed an atrio-His [A-H] interval of 155 msec). 24 Hours after ingestion, the patient was well, and the electrocardiogram was completely normal. This case gave us a good opportunity to study the electrocardiologic effects of a huge oral dose of verapamil on a healthy young heart.