Extracorporeal Life Support in a Case of Fatal Flecainide and Betaxolol Poisoning Allowing Successful Cardiac Allograft

Use of cardiac allograft for transplantation from donors after acute poisoning is a matter of debate because of potential toxic organ injuries, especially if death results from massive ingestion of cardiotoxic drugs. We report successful allograft cardiac transplantation from a brain-dead patient after severe flecainide and betaxolol self-poisoning requiring extracorporeal life support. Extracorporeal life support was initiated in the emergency department because of a refractory cardiac arrest caused by the cardiotoxicants' ingestion and continued after the onset of brain death to facilitate organ donation of the heart, liver, and kidneys. Forty-five months later, each organ recipient was alive, with normal graft function. [Ann Emerg Med. 2010;56:409-4121