Lack of effect of intravenous hypertonic glucose on the intensity of alcohol intoxication induced experimentally and observed in patients of an emergency room.

In the present paper, two experiments are performed to test the efficacy of the intravenous administration of hypertonic glucose (25 or 50%) in alcoholic intoxication. In a first experiment, 10 healthy, nonstarved volunteers, received 15 min after the ingestion of 1.0 g/kg alcohol, 40 ml of 25% glucose i.v., the same volume of 0.9% NaCl or no injection. According to evaluations performed at several time intervals up to 2 h after alcohol ingestion, no difference among the 3 conditions was observed either in the intensity of alcohol intoxication or on blood alcohol levels. In a second experiment, blood glucose and alcohol levels were evaluated in 80 alcoholized patients in an emergency room. The mean glycemic value was 94 mg/100 ml. No difference was found by comparing this value with that presented by nonalcoholized patients. The 80 patients were distributed in two groups of 40 each: one of them was intravenously administered 40 ml of glucose 50% while the other was injected with saline. About 20-30 min later the patients of both groups were clinically evaluated by the physician on duty, being considered equally improved regardless of the injection. The self-evaluation by the patients provided similar results.