A review of chloral hydrate, its toxicity and case reports of intoxications

Chloral hydrate (CH) is a colorless substance which is in solid state at standard ambient temperature. CH used to have a wide range of utilization in 20th century in both medical and veterinary fields. CH was used as an anesthetic agent, hypnotic drug, sedative and anti-anxiety. In 21th century, the usage of CH has been limited due to its side effects. Nowadays CH is used as sedative in pediatrics and anesthetic agent in equine and laboratorial animals. Like any anesthetic agent, CH is cardiotoxic, respiratory depressor and CNS depressor.In spite of all of that, most of the intoxication cases are the ones who committed suicide. In this article we are going to review and precisely analyze the chloral hydrates side effects and intoxication cases as well as researches which proof the toxicity of chloral hydrates.

Keywords:

Chloral hydrate , Toxicity , Anesthetic agent , Cardiotoxicity , Respiratory depressant , CNS depressant , Neonathal sedation , Veterinary anesthesia