Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Inhalation poisoning is caused by gaseous causative agent. In this presentation, clinical cases of inhalation poisoning encountered in our daily practice in our emergency department.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is the most common gas poisoning encountered in daily emergency medical practice. Especially, when the method of suicide by charcoal briquettes was spread on the Internet around 2005, the number of cases increased nationwide. There are many clinical questions with treating carbon monoxide poisoning, such as indication of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and treatment of late-onset encephalopathy.
Around 2007, a method of generating hydrogen sulfide was spread on the Internet, and many cases of poisoning occurred. The social impact of the fact that it was possible to generate a gas with a toxicity equivalent to that of chemical terrorism using household products was notable, and it became a social problem with many cases of suicide and secondary injury to rescuers.
As a rare situation, oral ingestion of sodium azide, lime sulfur, and arsenic could generate toxic gas through a reaction with gastric acid. It could cause secondary hazard in an emergency department with the patient as the source, which could be a pitfall in treatment.
Other presentations include poisoning from helium gas, respiratory failure caused by inhalation of waterproof spray, carbon dioxide poisoning from dry ice, and poisoning cases from thinner and LP gas inhalation.
