The Clinical Toxicology of Solvent Abuse

Hayden, James W.; Comstock, Eric G.; Comstock, Betsy S.

doi:10.3109/15563657608988121

Cited by 37 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Information as to the risk of morbidity arising from solvent abuse is more difficult to obtain, although a number of reports have drawn attention to renal, hepatic and CNS toxicity resulting from chronic solvent abuse (Hayden, Comstock & Comstock, 1976). More recently, there have been additional case reports from the UK and elsewhere which describe renal damage (Bennett & Forman, 1980;Will & McLaren, 1981;Venkataraman, 1981), encephalopathy (King et al, 1981), convulsions (Helliwell and Murphy, 1979;Allister et al, 1981) and muscular atrophy (Suzuki et al, 1974).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suspected Solvent Abuse in Cases Referred to the Poisons Unit, Guy's Hospital, July 1980-June 1981

et al. 1982

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1 From July 1980 to June 1981, requests for information as to management or prognosis were received concerning 324 patients (219 male, 91 female) aged 3-31 y (median 15 y) in whom 'solvent abuse' was suspected. 2 The principal symptoms reported were unconsciousness (37), drowsiness (62), 'collapse' (7), convulsions (6), ataxia (35), chest pain (9), nausea/vomiting (20), renal impairment (3) and behavioural disturbances (84). At least 105 patients were admitted to hospital, and 1 was dead on arrival. 3 The products abused in 290 clinically diagnosed cases were: adhesives (214), correcting fluids (23), chlorinated solvents (17), fuel gases (18), petrol (5), BCF fire extinguishing agent (5) and others (17). The co-ingestion of alcohol or other drugs was suspected in only 27 cases. 4 Specimens of blood and/or urine were received for analysis from 117 patients. The clinical diagnosis of solvent abuse was confirmed in 71 cases and solvents were detected in 2 further instances. Ethanol/other drugs were detected in 18 instances, either together with solvent(s) (9) or alone (9), although no compounds were detected in the remaining 35 cases. 5 Toluene (and/or raised urinary hippurate/creatinine ratio) was detected in 52 of the analyses, 1,1,1-trichloroethane in 14 and trichloroethylene (and/or trichloroethanol) in 12. Ethanol was detected in 7 instances, and other drugs (principally benzodiazepines) in 13. 6 Although the presenting symptoms and outcome were usually unremarkable, these results emphasise that some patients can develop serious illness such as collapse or convulsions, which may prove fatal, while chronic solvent abuse can be associated with renal impairment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suspected Solvent Abuse in Cases Referred to the Poisons Unit, Guy's Hospital, July 1980-June 1981

et al. 1982

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“…4.6,17 Chronic organ toxicity in a young, otherwise healthy, population has to be marked in order to become clinically apparent. As Hayden et a1.6 6 remarked in relation to neurological toxicity 'It would not be surprising that commonly used solvents such as toluene cause metabolic or morphologic changes when used in large amounts for long periods of time. The problem is that these changes may not be detectable at an early stage by our current routine clinical laboratory tests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Chronic Non-neurological Toxicity from Volatile Substance Abuse

Marjot

McLeod

1989

Human Toxicology

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1 Most of the evidence for chronic non-neurological toxicity from volatile substance abuse is derived from case reports. 2 Factors important in assessing these reports are the marked variations in exposure conditions and in the composition of the products abused. 3 In a young and otherwise healthy population, any chronic organ toxicity arising from VSA has to be gross in order to become clinically apparent. This may partially explain the relatively low incidence of reporting. 4 Toluene and the chlorinated hydrocarbons 1,1,1-trichloroethane and trichloroethylene can cause permanent damage to the kidney, liver, heart and lung, in certain volatile substance abusers.

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“…In the first of these papers (Clinger and Johnson, 1951) two cases of intentional inhalation of gasoline vapors were described. While these and other case histories are useful in describing the characteristics and background of * Commercially available leaded gasoline contains approximately ,53 g of tetraethyl lead per litre (Boeckx et al, 1977) while aviation gas contains 1,4 g of tetraethyl lead per litre (Beattie et al,, 1972), ** This table is an abridged and updated version of a similar table prepared by Hayden, Comstock, and Comstock (1976). sniffers, they do not provide much information on the extent of this practice.…”

Section: Carder 1978mentioning

confidence: 99%

Drug and Alcohol Use

Einstein¹

1989

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The Clinical Toxicology of Solvent Abuse

Cited by 37 publications

References 37 publications

Suspected Solvent Abuse in Cases Referred to the Poisons Unit, Guy's Hospital, July 1980-June 1981

Suspected Solvent Abuse in Cases Referred to the Poisons Unit, Guy's Hospital, July 1980-June 1981

Chronic Non-neurological Toxicity from Volatile Substance Abuse

Drug and Alcohol Use

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