Nonfatal pulmonary edema after "freebase" cocaine smoking

Abstract

Pulmonary edema is known to develop in users of heroin and methadone. Its association with cocaine use is usually a postmortem finding. There has been only 1 report of pulmonary edema being diagnosed clinically after cocaine use. In that case the cocaine was used intravenously, and death occurred within 3 h after the onset of symptoms. Here we describe a patient who developed acute pulmonary edema after smoking "freebase" cocaine. The pulmonary edema resolved spontaneously within 72 h. The cause of the acute reversible pulmonary edema was probably related to both pressure- and permeability-related changes.