Tuesday, February 6, 2007

A clean inoxication...

In this week's New England Journal of Medicine, Dr's Emadi and Coberley write about a patient with a history of alcohol abuse, who was admitted to their hospital for chest pain. After a negative workup, the patient was found hypotensive and delirious -- shortly after drinking the hand sanitizer in the bathroom. The culprit -- isopropyl alcohol. Intoxication may lead to dense coma and refractive hypotension. This patient was fortunate; he was resuscitated to the point that, when asked why he drank the hand sanitizer, he pointed to the label, which read,

"Active ingredient 63%v/v isopropyl alcohol."

He explained that this percentage is higher than that in vodka.

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