Oral Succimer for Lead Chelation Does Not Lead to Better Neuropsychological Outcomes

Elevated lead levels are still a common problem in general pediatrics. Standard practice to date has been to consider chelation therapy for children whose lead levels exceed 20mcg/dL and to treat those with levels exceeding 45 mcg/dL. The efficacy of this practice on long-term cognitive outcomes has not been well assessed. In this large randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial, the authors investigated whether children with moderately high blood lead levels (20–44mcg/dL) benefit from oral chelation with succimer as measured by improved scores on a range of tests measuring cognition, neuropsychological function, and behavior. Seven hundred eighty children aged 12–33 months …