Toxic Inhalational Injury

ToxiC inhalaTional injury and ToxiC indusTrial ChemiCals

Endobronchial polyposis secondary to thermal inhalational injury.

A 28-year-old man who sustained inhalational injury in a house fire developed symptoms of chronic cough and hemoptysis requiring bronchoscopy. Two months after the initial injury, numerous endobronchial polyps were found in the trachea and throughout the bronchial tree. His symptoms have subsequently improved over a six-month period while receiving steroid therapy. To our knowledge, this delaye...

Atrial Fibrillation after Inhalational Lung Injury: A Troubling Complication of a Rare Problem

Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been associated with lung diseases like pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease but has only infrequently been associated with inhalational lung injury. We report two cases of resistant AF, which developed in young healthy manual laborers shortly after inhalational lung injury due to massive quantity of pesticides and anhydrous ammonia, respectively. The...

Respiratory failure and death following acute inhalation of mercury vapor. A clinical and histologic perspective.

A family of four was exposed to toxic levels of mercury vapor while attempting to extract silver from mercury amalgam. All four suffered respiratory failure and subsequent death despite chelation therapy with dimercaprol. Histologic findings at autopsy were similar in all four cases demonstrating a progression of acute lung injury that appeared related to postexposure day survival. There were n...

Toxic leucoencephalopathy after 'chasing the dragon'.

Toxic leucoencephalopathy (TLE) is a rare neurological complication of heroin abuse. 'Chasing the dragon' is an inhalational mode of heroin abuse that originated in Southeast Asia. Intriguingly, no cases of TLE have been reported from this region, although the inhalational mode of heroin abuse is common. We herein report the case of a middle-aged man with a history of polysubstance abuse who pr...