Abstract
The intent of gut decontamination, a cardinal principle of the management of the overdose patient, is to prevent poisoning. Historically, this consisted of either ipecac-induced emesis or gastric lavage followed by a slurry of activated charcoal with a cathartic. Recent research has modified this approach to activated charcoal alone for most ingestions, with whole-bowel irrigation being reserved for a few special circumstances. Of additional importance is the limitation of gut decontamination to within the first 2 hours after overdose for most situations. It is unknown whether any type of gut decontamination actually produces benefit for the patient and this will likely remain as an unanswered question.
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