Recruiting

Activated Charcoal

Sponsor:

Laval University

Code:

NCT05471479

Conditions

Charcoal, Decontamination, Poisoning

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 0+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Activated Charcoal

No activated charcoal

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical pilot trial is to determine the feasibility of the clinical trial. Then the large-scale CHARPP will be conducted in order to determine the efficacity of activated charcoal as a treatment for acute poisoning in a diverse population of both adults and children suspected of ingesting toxic substances that activated charcoal can adsorb. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Can activated charcoal administered within a specific time frame prevent the progression of toxicity?
  • How does activated charcoal affect the length of stay in the hospital and the intensive care unit? Researchers will compare the intervention arm (receiving activated charcoal) to the control arm (receiving standard supportive care) to see if activated charcoal reduces hospital stay duration, ICU stay and improves overall patient outcomes.

Participants will:

  • Be randomly assigned to either receive activated charcoal or standard supportive care.
  • Undergo assessments using standardized clinical scales such as the Poison Severity Score and, for children, the PELODS score.
  • Have their functional outcomes evaluated, such as the ability to return to their original residence without help and manage personal hygiene tasks independently.

This structured approach will help clarify the role of activated charcoal in clinical toxicology and inform future treatment protocols.

Conditions

Charcoal, Decontamination, Poisoning

Study ID

NCT05471479

Start date

Jul 16, 2025

Status verified date

Mar, 2025

Completion date

Feb 1, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jun 1, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 0+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adult and pediatric patients who presented to the hospital less than 6h after the ingestion of a potentially toxic dose of a carbo-adsorbable substance (substance adsorbed by activated charcoal ).
  • Patients who can receive the intervention within 6 hours of proven or suspected intoxication

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients requiring or who will likely require another gastro-intestinal decontamination method;
  • Patients who have contraindication to the use of activated charcoal;
  • Patients who ingested a substance with an entero-hepatic circulation requiring multi-dose AC;
  • Patients who have no clinical equipoise for the use of activated charcoal as per the attending physician.

Study Design

Enrollment

100 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: AC administration

Participants will receive 1g/kg up to a maximum of 50g of activated charcoal by mouth or by naso-gastric tube. The intervention is giving over 15 minutes, as recommended. Activated charcoal can be mixed in a black soft drink to improve palatability and treatment adherence which is often done in usual practice.

active comparator: No AC

Participants will not receive any activated charcoal

Interventions

Activated Charcoal

Activated charcoal

No activated charcoal

No activated charcoal

Primary outcome measure

  • Recruitment success [ Time Frame: 12 months ]
  • Protocol adherence [ Time Frame: 12 months ]
  • lost to follow-up [ Time Frame: 12 months ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Locations

CHU de Québec - Université Laval

Recruiting

Québec, Quebec, Canada, G1J1Z4

Contacts

Principal Investigator:

Maude St-Onge, Md PhD FRCPC

More Information

Sponsor

Laval University

Last update posted

Jan 29, 2026

Last verified

Mar, 2025

Keywords

  • activated charcoal
  • decontamination
  • poisoning
  • intoxication
  • toxicity
  • clinical trial
  • toxicology
  • Emergency medicine
  • PROBE trial

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Laval University on 2026-01-29.