Adding an orange to the banana bag- are we talking about IV fluids?
National center for drug abuse statistics states that alcohol causes 10% of deaths among 15-49 year-olds. Therefore, alcohol-related hospitalization is a very common medical condition in emergency departments. During acute illness, these patients usually present with a poor balanced diet and deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients. USA guidelines indicate a use of “banana bag” to treat acute alcohol intoxication. It contains 100 mg thiamine and a combination of multivitamins. US authors suggest that hypovitaminosis C is a common issue that should be addressed with additional supplementation of vitamin C. As vitamin C is a pivotal antioxidant in the brain, it plays an important role in neuromodulation and cognitive function. It appears that there is a bi-directional relationship between ethanol and this vitamin, as a significant urinary loss of vitamin C was demonstrated during alcohol intoxication. These findings are based on a retrospective, observational study including 69 patients. 75% of this cohort had hypovitaminosis C, where 42% were reported to have a severe deficiency. Therefore, minimum recommendations is that dosing should achieve normal vitamin C levels as quickly as possible.