Parieto-Occipital Syndrome Following Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

1950 ◽  
Vol 96 (405) ◽  
pp. 1015-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. D. F. Steele ◽  
A. B. Hegarty

Suicidal attempts by coal-gas poisoning are very common. Carbon monoxide is a principal constituent of this gas, and can produce severe and permanent brain damage. It is surprising, therefore, to find so few cases of chronic organic psychosis attributed to this cause in mental hospital practice. Rosseter (1928) found only one example of permanent psychosis in 2,000 cases of carbon monoxide asphyxiation. Shillito, Drinker and Shaughnessy (1936) made a follow-up study of 21,000 cases of acute carbon monoxide poisoning. In only 43 of these were the after-effects sufficiently severe to warrant their admission to a mental hospital. Twenty-three subsequently recovered, 11 died, and 9 suffered permanent nervous and mental sequelae. They found that the ratio of psychosis following carbon monoxide poisoning to other psychoses was 1 in 2,000. Henderson and Gillespie (1944) could find only one such case in 5,000 consecutive admissions.

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (12) ◽  
pp. 2932-2935
Author(s):  
Sofia David ◽  
Anton Knieling ◽  
Calin Scripcaru ◽  
Madalina Diac ◽  
Ion Sandu ◽  
...  

Carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity of toxic origin in the world. Its insidious and polymorphic symptomatology makes it difficult to diagnose. It occurs accidentally, because of non-supervised domestic fires, or in fire victims. In fire victims, in particular, the differential diagnosis between carbon monoxide gas poisoning, inhalation of other toxic products of combustion like cyanide, oxygen deprivation, thermal burns and shock due to burns as a cause of death is not an easy task. The authors examined 107 fire victims that were autopsied at the Forensic Medicine from Iasi, Romania, in the last 10 years (2007-2016). Most cases were males (69.16%), young (0-9 years) or older than 60 with a burned surface of 91-100% in 68.22% of cases. Blood samples from the cadavers were collected in all cases in order to analyse carboxyhaemoglobin concentration and haemolysis. Toxicological analysis revealed a carboxyhaemoglobin level of maximum 95% but the majority of cases (70.72%) had a concentration inferior to 50%. An inverse correlation was identified between carboxyhaemoglobin concentration and haemolysis, an indicator of heat dissociation. Our study proves that many fire victims may die because of carbon monoxide intoxication prior to the extent of burns at a lethal potential.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luís Ramos dos Santos ◽  
Magna Alves-Correia ◽  
Margarida Câmara ◽  
Manuela Lélis ◽  
Carmo Caldeira ◽  
...  

Introduction: Carbon monoxide poisoning may occur in several contexts.Material and Methods: Retrospective of 37 carbon monoxide poisoning cases that underwent hyperbaric oxygen during wildfires in Funchal in August 2016.Results: The studied sample included 37 patients, mean age of 38 years, 78% males. Ten were firefighters, four children and two pregnant victims. Neurological symptoms were the most reported. Median carboxyhemoglobin level was 3.7% (IQR 2.7). All received high-flow oxygen from admission to delivery of hyperbaric oxygen. Persistence of symptoms was the main indication for hyperbaric oxygen. Median time to hyperbaric oxygen was 4.8 hours (IQR 9.5), at 2.5 ATA for 90 minutes, without major complications. Discharge in less than 24 hours occurred in 92% of the cases. Thirty days follow-up: five patients presented clinical symptoms of late neurological syndrome; twelve patients were lost to follow-up. Carboxyhemoglobin levels on admission and mean time to hyperbaric oxygen were no different between those who did and did not develop the syndrome at 30 days (p = 0.44 and p = 0.58, respectively).Discussion: Late neurological syndrome at 30 days occurred in 20% and no new cases were reported at 12 months.Conclusion: Use of hyperbaric oxygen appears to have reduced the incidence of the syndrome. This seems to be the first Portuguese series reporting use of hyperbaric oxygen in carbon monoxide poisoning due to wildfires. The authors intend to alert to the importance of referral of these patients because the indications and benefits of this treatment are well documented. This is especially important given the ever-growing issue of wildfires in Portugal.


1960 ◽  
Vol 106 (443) ◽  
pp. 675-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Eilenberg ◽  
I. Lodge Patch ◽  
E. H. Hare

The widespread use of barbiturates as hypnotics for insomnia has greatly increased the risk of accidental overdosage and the number of suicidal attempts. The size of the problem concerning barbiturates and suicidal attempts is difficult to estimate as only suicidal deaths are recorded by the Registrar General, and his statistics for 1956 (R.G., 1958) reveal that out of a total of 5,282 suicidal deaths, drugs (mainly barbiturates) were second only to domestic coal gas poisoning as the effective agent. Stengel (1958) calculated that six times the number of suicidal deaths gives an approximate estimate of the number of attempted suicides. Locket and Angus (1952) found that of the patients admitted to their Unit, barbiturates were the drug involved in 80 per cent. of the cases and that in 90 per cent. of the cases it had been prescribed for the treatment of insomnia. Locket (1958) also estimated that some 6,000 patients were admitted annually to hospitals in England and Wales for treatment of barbiturate poisoning.


1989 ◽  
Vol 236 (8) ◽  
pp. 478-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Vieregge ◽  
W. Klostermann ◽  
R. G. Bl�mm ◽  
K. J. Borgis

1999 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. D. NUYTTEN ◽  
E. L.E. DHONDT ◽  
M. B. SABBE ◽  
A. I. MEULEMANS ◽  
D. M. CROLS ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Chien-Cheng Huang ◽  
Tzu-Hao Chen ◽  
Chung-Han Ho ◽  
Yi-Chen Chen ◽  
Chien-Chin Hsu ◽  
...  

Background: Carbon monoxide poisoning (COP) is an important public health issue around the world. It may increase the risk of myocardial injury, but the association between COP and congestive heart failure (CHF) remains unclear. We conducted a study incorporating data from epidemiological and animal studies to clarify this issue. Methods: Using the National Health Insurance Database of Taiwan, we identified patients with COP diagnosed between 1999 and 2012 and compared them with patients without COP (non-COP cohort) matched by age and the index date at a 1:3 ratio. The comparison for the risk of CHF between the COP and non-COP cohorts was made using Cox proportional hazards regression. We also established a rat model to evaluate cardiac function using echocardiography and studied the pathological changes following COP. Results: The 20 942 patients in the COP cohort had a higher risk for CHF than the 62 826 members in the non-COP cohort after adjusting for sex and underlying comorbidities (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.01 [95% CI, 1.74–2.32]). The increased risk of CHF persisted even after 2 years of follow-up (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.85 [95% CI, 1.55–2.21]). In the animal model, COP led to a decreased left ventricular ejection fraction on echocardiography and damage to cardiac cells with remarkable fibrotic changes. Conclusions: Our epidemiological data showed an increased risk of CHF was associated with COP, which was supported by the animal study. We suggest close follow-up of cardiac function for patients with COP to facilitate early intervention and further studies to identify other long-term effects that have not been reported in the literature.


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