Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2025 Feb 19:14:101963.
doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2025.101963. eCollection 2025 Jun.

Successful management after ingestion of a potentially fatal dose of inorganic mercuric chloride: A case report

Ahmed Moustafa Elmenshawy  1 , Marwa Kholief  1 , Sara Attia Ghitani  1 , Asmaa El-Banna  1 , Ahmed Fathi Elkeraie  1 , Nesreen Abdelgawad Yassen  1 , Mahmoud Ahmed Maghawry  1 , Mohamed Abdelsalam Eltelwany  1 , Osama Mohammed Refai  1 , AbdALLAH Abbas Tawfiq  1 , Atef Abdelaziz Mahrous  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Successful management after ingestion of a potentially fatal dose of inorganic mercuric chloride: A case report

Ahmed Moustafa Elmenshawy et al. Toxicol Rep. .

Abstract

Although acute mercury exposure is a rare incidence, it may represent a potential threat as an occupational hazard or suicide attempt. This report aimed to state a case of survival after ingestion of a lethal dose of mercuric chloride. A 3.5-year-old child was admitted to Alexandria poison center half an hour after accidental ingestion of 4.9 g of mercuric chloride. The case presented with severe respiratory distress, hemodynamically instability, and Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES). The multidisciplinary team of physicians faced real challenges in the management of this case to cope with the stormy course and proper timing of the antidote of choice as regards safety and efficacy together with the technique used for excretion of large molecular weight DMPS-mercury complex through continuous veno-venous hemodialysis.

Keywords: Acute; Continuous veno-venous hemodialysis; DMPS; Mercuric chloride; PRES syndrome; Poisoning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Magnetic Resonance Imaging on the brain showed bilateral occipital hyperdense opacity which suggested the diagnosis of PRES syndrome.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Urinary mercury concentrations versus days post-mercury ingestion during and after chelation therapies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dias D., Bessa J., Guimarães S., Soares M.E., Bastos Mde L., Teixeira H.M. Inorganic mercury intoxication: a case report. Forensic Sci. Int. 2016;259:e20–e24. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.12.021. - DOI - PubMed
    1. “Mercury and health”, fact sheet number 361, updated on September 2013, World Health Organization..
    1. Rakete S., Asenbauer E., Böhm S., Leiz S., Peters J., Nowak D., Bose-O'Reilly S. Mercury poisoning of a 4-year-old child by indirect contact to a mercury-containing facial cream: a case report. SAGE Open Med Case Rep. 2021;9 doi: 10.1177/2050313X211025227. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chandelia S., Vohra V., Prasad S., Tiwari M.K., Nallasamy K., Angurana S.K. Acute mercury poisoning in young children: when to treat? Indian J. Pedia. 2023;90(6):629. doi: 10.1007/s12098-023-04533-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Verma S., Kumar R., Khadwal A., Singhi S. Accidental inorganic mercury chloride poisoning in a 2-year old child. Indian J. Pedia. 2010;77(10):1153–1155. doi: 10.1007/s12098-010-0143-9. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources