Annual Meeting of NACCT

Background: The cases occurred at a barbecue party of a family and their friends. A salad offered at the party contained leaves of garden monkshood that had been mistaken for parsley.Four persons developed health complaints. Case Report: Manifestations / course: Patient No. 1: Two hours after ingestion of the meal, a 19-year-old female complained of numbness in her mouth and a tingling sensation in her entire body. Presumably, she had eaten the largest amount of salad. On arrival of the emergency physician, the patient's heart rate was 86/min and her systolic blood pressure, 100 mmHg. The ECG revealed a sinus rhythm associated with intermittent bigeminy. After i.v. administration of magnesium, a normal sinus rhythm was found in the follow-up examination some hours later. After two days, the patient could be discharged completely symptom-free and referred to her family doctor's care. Patient No. 2: Another female aged 20 years also complained of numbness in the region of her mouth and on both arms, and of meteorism, approximately two hours after the meal. She persistently suffered from numbness and a tingling sensation on both hands. The ECG revealed a sinus rhythm and first-degree AV block (PQ interval 0.34 sec). Intermittent bigeminus occurred. After i.v. administration of magnesium, cardiac arrhythmia persisted for three hours until it was followed by a normofrequent sinus rhythm. Case Discussion: The therapeutic approach was similar to that in the case of the first patient. The patient was symptom-free on the following day and could be discharged. Conclusion: As a consequence of the mix-up, four out of six persons who had eaten the salad developed health complaints. Two of them developed mild symptoms, another two had to be treated at ICU. These both patients could be discharged from hospital after two days.