[Diethylene glycol poisoning - the first known Swedish case]

Abstract

A woman in her sixties presented at the Emergency department with nausea, flank pain and profuse vomiting. She had an anion-gap metabolic acidosis, elevated liver enzymes and a pronounced renal failure with creatinine 1997 µmol/L (22,6 mg/dl). She was admitted and treated with haemodialysis. On hospital day 5 a bilateral facial palsy, blindness and a moderate generalized weakness rapidly developed. The patient now revealed that she had consumed about 2 dl of brake fluid with a high content of diethylene glycol about a week before hospital admission. Diethylene glycol poisoning typically causes irreversible kidney failure and demyelinating nerve damage in severe cases. The early and debilitating metabolic acidosis seen in ethylene glycol poisoning seems to be absent in diethylene glycol poisoning and patients often present late. This is the first known Swedish case of symptomatic diethylene glycol poisoning. Internationally, during the last century, several mass poisonings have been caused by diethylene glycol contaminated pharmaceutical products.