Question

Methanol’s toxicity is related to the way the body metabolizes it. Describe what happens and what the effects of exposure to methanol are?

Answer 1

• Methanol, also known as wood alcohol, is a commonly used organic solvent that, because of its toxicity, can cause metabolic acidosis, neurologic sequelae, and even death, when ingested
• Methanol intoxication can lead to several ECG changes, with sinus tachycardia and non-specific T-wave changes being the most common
• Acute methanol toxicity in humans evolves in a fairly well defined pattern. A toxic exposure results initially in a transient, mild depression of the central nervous system (CNS).
• Physical symptoms typically may include headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting; these may be followed by severe abdominal pain and difficult, periodic breathing (Kussmaul breathing), which may progress to coma and death, usually from respiratory failure.
• In parallel with the onset of these symptoms, subjects experience visual disturbances that include blurred or indistinct vision and altered visual fields (often depression of the central field) and, in severe cases, total blindness.
• Ophthalmoscopic examinations of methanol-poisoned victims show that hyperemia (i.e., a local increase in blood flow) of the optic disc is the earliest change that occurs in the retina; hyperemia accompanies the initial visual symptoms
• Methanol poisonings have revealed gross pathology in the visceral organs, the lung, and the CNS, all of which involve a variety of edematous, hemorrhagic, and degenerative changes.

Symptoms of Methanol Poisoning

• Weakness
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Blurred Vision
• Blindness
• Death

Treatment

• Sodium Bicarbonate to prevent visual impairment
• Hemodialysis to remove methanol and formate from blood
• Co-Exposure to Ethanol