Welcome

LipidRescue™ resuscitation refers to the use of an intravascular infusion of a lipid emulsion to treat severe, systemic drug toxicity or poisoning. It was originally developed to treat local anesthetic toxicity, a potentially fatal complication of regional anesthesia that can also occur in other situations where patients receive local anesthetic injections. More recently, LipidRescue has been proposed (in articles in the ER literature and elsewhere) as a treatment modality for poisoning or overdose by lipophilic agents in general. Support for this view is provided by a most remarkable case report of its use to save a patient from overwhelming bupropion overdose. The hope is that LipidRescue will be equally effective in treating a variety of causes of toxin-induced cardiac arrest.

I established this site to serve as a source of information on LipidRescue methodology and related issues. I will provide a venue for the robust exchange of ideas on topics including the mechanisms, epidemiology, diagnosis, presentation, prevention and treatment of life-threatening local anesthetic overdose and other types of severe cardiac toxicity.

Content includes the aforementioned aspects of local anesthetic toxicity plus links to related educational sites, typical experiments from my (the Weinberg) lab that are posted on UTube for you to review, lipidrescue guidelines in several languages that you can download for free (find in the Navigator under 'Getting Started'), use in your institution (e.g., laminate and post in the block room), some suggestions about how to institute a program, my blog by on topics related to LipidRescue™ resuscitation and cardiac toxicity (feel free to post your comments), a place to post interesting educational cases - this is how we will all learn more about the setting, context, causes, clinical spectrum and treatment of all causes of toxicity.

Therefore, I hope that this site will become a forum for the exchange of ideas and will advance everyone's understanding of local anesthetic and other forms of toxicity, particularly prevention, identification, diagnosis, mechanisms, and treatment.

Please feel free to contribute. Guy Weinberg, MD