NOTES TO PHYSICIAN
» Any material aspirated during vomiting may produce lung injury. Therefore emesis should not be induced
mechanically or pharmacologically.
For acute or short term repeated exposures to petroleum distillates or related hydrocarbons:
- Primary threat to life, from pure petroleum distillate ingestion and/or inhalation, is respiratory failure.
- Patients should be quickly evaluated for signs of respiratory distress (e.g. cyanosis, tachypnoea,
intercostal retraction, obtundation) and given oxygen. Patients with inadequate tidal volumes or poor
arterial blood gases (pO2 50 mm Hg) should be intubated.
- Arrhythmias complicate some hydrocarbon ingestion and/or inhalation and electrocardiographic evidence of
myocardial injury has been reported; intravenous lines and cardiac monitors should be established in
obviously symptomatic patients. The lungs excrete inhaled solvents, so that hyperventilation improves
clearance.
- A chest x-ray should be taken immediately after stabilisation of breathing and circulation to document
aspiration and detect the presence of pneumothorax.