Severity of metabolic acidosis, state of consciousness, and serum ethanol on admission were the only significant parameters associated with mortality. The type of dialysis or antidote did not appear to affect mortality. Recommendations that were issued for hospital triage of fomepizole administration allowed conservation of valuable antidote in this massive poisoning outbreak for those patients most in need.

The long-term visual sequelae were clearly underestimated on discharge, suggesting a significantly higher amount of patients with long-term sequelae than earlier reported. Thorough examinations before discharge and during follow-up will likely uncover a higher morbidity also after methanol poisonings in general.

Abstract:The purpose was to study the prevalence and predisposing factors of brain lesions in survivors of acute methanol poisoning. Clinical data on 106 patients with methanol poisoning were collected during the Czech mass poisoning outbreak. Of 83 survivors, in 46 (55%) patients, follow-up examinations including magnetic resonance imaging of brain (MR) were performed 3-8 and 24-28 months after discharge from the hospital. Of 46 patients with a median age of 49 (interquartile range, 35-57) years, 24 (52%) patients had a total of 40 abnormal brain findings with haemorrhagic lesions detected in 15 (33%) and non-haemorrhagic lesions found in 9 (19%) patients. The patients with haemorrhagic brain lesions were more acidemic (lower arterial blood pH, higher base deficit) and had higher glycaemia and lactacidaemia on admission than those without haemorrhages (all p < 0.05). Thirteen of 32 (41%) of patients with systemic anticoagulation and 2 of 14 (14%) of patients without it had haemorrhagic lesions (p = 0.080). Bleeding complications during the treatment occurred in 4 of 15 (27%) patients, and 5 of 15 (33%) patients had conditions predisposing to haemorrhage in the group with haemorrhagic lesions. In three cases with a series of computer tomography (CT)/MR performed during hospitalization, the necrotic lesions in the brain remained non-haemorrhagic during hospitalization and haemorrhagic lesions were detected on the follow-up MR examinations only. No association between brain haemorrhages and systemic anticoagulation during dialysis was found: brain haemorrhages might occur in severely poisoned patients treated without systemic anticoagulation, whereas treatment with high doses of heparin might not lead to brain haemorrhages.Methanol poisoning due to the consumption of illicit alcoholic beverages represents an important medical problem throughout the world [1][2][3][4][5]. This poisoning generally occurs either intentionally through abuse or attempted suicide or unintentionally through misuse or accident [6,7]. Despite the progress in diagnosis and treatment of methanol poisoning, morbidity and mortality are still high [8,9]. If therapeutic measures are inadequate or delayed, mortality may exceed 40% and serious longterm visual and central nervous system (CNS) sequelae may occur [10][11][12]. The strategy of active case finding and prehospital ethanol administration in the patients with suspected poisoning can improve outcome in a large-scale outbreak of methanol poisoning [13,14].Methanol in the human organism is metabolized to the highly toxic formic acid/formate ion, which inhibits mitochondrial respiration [15][16][17][18]. The accumulation of formic acid results in metabolic acidosis, visual impairment and damage to basal ganglia [19][20][21]. Rapid administration of antidotes and haemodialysis are crucial for successful treatment [22][23][24][25]. Importance.The role of haemodialysis in the treatment of methanol poisoning is well-established: it effectively eliminates both methanol and formate and helps to cor...

Methanol-induced optic neuropathy may lead to chronic retinal axonal loss during the following years. Arterial blood pH on admission is the strongest predictor of chronic RNFL thickness decrease. Chronic retinal neurodegeneration is associated with the progressive loss of visual functions and necrotic brain lesions.

We found a positive association between out-of-hospital ethanol administration and improved clinical outcome. During mass methanol outbreaks, conscious adults with suspected poisoning should be considered for administration of out-of-hospital ethanol to reduce morbidity and mortality.