Signs and Symptoms: Symptoms of large oral overdose of penicillin may cause nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea, and, in rare cases, major motor seizures. If other symptoms are present, consideration must also be given to the possibility of an allergic reaction or symptoms secondary to a concurrent medication or other underlying disease state, especially in adults.

Treatment: To obtain up-to-date information about the treatment of overdose, a good resource is your certified Regional Poison Control Center. Telephone numbers of certified poison control centers are listed in Physicians GenR_x. In managing overdosage, consider the possibility of multiple drug overdoses, interaction among drugs, and unusual drug kinetics in your patient.

Ensure adequate ventilation and protect the patient's airway while attempting to limit drug absorption. In oral overdosage, consideration must be given to emesis or lavage to evacuate the stomach, and administration of activated charcoal by mouth or via lavage tube with a cathartic such as sorbitol may hasten drug elimination. Penicillin may be removed by hemodialysis. No specific antidote is known to be effective.

A previous hypersensitivity reaction to any penicillin is a contraindication.

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