You can read the full guidance document here. The BAD has also updated its potassium permanganate patient information leaflet (PIL), available here. This guidance, and the PIL, should be read together to understand fully the safest way to use potassium permanganate concentrate. Below you can find an excerpt from the Executive Summary.

Potassium permanganate is a chemical compound that can be obtained as a ‘tablet’, solution or crystals; it is not licensed as a medicine. Within the NHS, it is available in a concentrated form for external use only, usually as a 400 mg ‘tablet’ (Permitabs®, EN-Potab®) or occasionally as a 5% solution for dilution. Within this guidance document, all potassium permanganate forms will be referred to as ‘potassium permanganate concentrate’, as there are no readily available dilute solutions.

Potassium permanganate concentrate must be diluted before use as a mild antiseptic and astringent to treat weeping and blistering skin conditions such as weeping/infected eczema and leg ulcers; usually, as a wet dressing or bath. The formulations of potassium permanganate concentrate look like an oral tablet or juice drink but can be fatal if ingested orally. This is due to local inflammatory reactions that block the airways or cause perforations of the gastrointestinal tract and can also cause death through toxicity and organ failure. Ingestion of the dilute solution can also cause toxicity issues.

A Patient Safety Alert was issued in 2014, however, significant patient safety incidents are still being reported. Potassium permanganate concentrate is either inadvertently administered to patients orally or swallowed by patients when it is left unattended near the patient prior to dilution.

The recommendations set out in this guidance document seek to mitigate further the identified patient safety issues with using potassium permanganate concentrate. The implementation of these recommendations are supported by a National Patient Safety Alert.