Home Medicine Lethargy in a newborn: lithium toxicity or lab error?
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Lethargy in a newborn: lithium toxicity or lab error?

  • A. Malzacher , H. Engler , G. Drack and C. Kind
Published/Copyright: June 1, 2005
Journal of Perinatal Medicine
From the journal Volume 31 Issue 4

Abstract

Lithium medication during pregnancy is uncommon and the problems of a neonate who has been exposed to lithium represents a rare situation in neonatology.

The clinical presentation and management of a newborn whose mother received lithium during pregnancy is presented. The newborn manifested a four day course of lethargy with unexplained high lithium levels in the adult toxic range. The infant improved clinically under intravenous hydration therapy, nevertheless lithium serum levels increased again and we did not know for certain if our clinical instinct or the actual figures were correct. Finally we noticed that our confusion had resulted from test tubes containing lithium heparine.

:
Published Online: 2005-06-01
Published in Print: 2003-07-21

Copyright © 2003 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG

Downloaded on 31.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/JPM.2003.049/pdf
Scroll to top button