Methanol poisoning and long term sequelae – a six years follow-up after a large methanol outbreak. Raido Paasma , Knut Erik Hovda and Dag Jacobsen .BMC Clinical Pharmacology 2009, 9:5.Full text. Abstract:Mass poisonings with methanol are rare but occur regularly both in developed and in developing countries. Data from the poisoning episodes are often published, but follow-up-data is scarce. We therefore conducted a six year follow-up study after the large methanol outbreak in Estonia in September 2001. Read full article
Methods: Surviving victims from the outbreak were contacted and invited
to an interview and a clinical evaluation by an ophthalmologist and a
physician. The patients that failed to respond were searched for in the
Estonian Register of Population and through their General
Practitioner.Results:During the outbreak in 2001, 86/111 hospitalized
patients survived: 66 without sequelae (Group I) and 20 with sequelae
(Group II). Six years later, 26/86 were dead, 33/86 could not be
tracked down, and so only 27/86 of these were followed up and examined:
22/66 of the patients in Group I, and 5/20 in Group II were found and
examined. From Group I, 8/22 were identified with new neurological
impairment and 8/22 with new visual disturbances after discharge. From
Group II, visual disturbances (n = 4) and neurological impairment (n =
3) were still present in all patients. Among the 26 dead, 19 were from
Group I, and seven were from Group II. Alcohol intoxication was the
most frequent cause of death (7/26).Conclusion: All sequelae were still
present six years after the initial poisoning suggesting that these
were irreversible damages. On follow-up, apparently new neurological
and visual complications were identified in 36% and 36%, respectively.
35% of the patients initially discharged with sequelae and 29%
discharged without were dead six years later; 27% of them from alcohol
intoxication.