CIWA-Ar

Optimize benzodiazepine treatment of patients alcohol withdrawal

About

The CIWA-Ar Score is a scale used in the management of alcohol withdrawal.

This is a validated scoring system that has high inter-rater reliability.

Saitz et al showed that using the CIWA-Ar scoring system along with symptom-triggered treatment protocol, it is possible to shorten benzodiazepine treatment duration to 9 hrs from 68 hrs in a fixed-schedule benzodiazepine group (P < .001).

The symptom-triggered group received markedly less benzodiazepine than the fixed-schedule group, with no significant differences in the severity of withdrawal during treatment or in the incidence of seizures or delirium tremens.

References

Saitz R, Mayo-Smith MF, Redmond HA, Bernard DR, Calkins DR.

JAMA: the Journal of the American Medical Association 1994 August 17, 272 (7): 519-23

The CIWA-Ar calculator is created by QxMD.

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