During treatment for asthma, a 3-year-old, 15-kg child was given 750 mg of theophylline in error. Within three hours she was treated with albumin-collodion activated charcoal (ACAC) hemoperfusion. Immediately before treatment her serum theophylline level was 74 microgram/ml. At the end of three hours of hemoperfusion, her theophylline level had fallen to 14.4 microgram/ml and four hours later it was 8.8 microgram/ml. The ACAC hemoperfusion system completely removed all the theophylline passing through it without saturation, and the total amount of drug removed was 500.8 mg (more than two thirds of the dose administered). The technique described is an efficient and rapidly effective method for the treatment of potentially lethal theophylline intoxication. For maximum effectiveness, it must be instituted as soon after intoxication as possible.
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Chang et al. (1980) studied this question.