Doctors Warn of Fatal Brain Swelling from Fentanyl as Seattle Father Becomes First Person to Suffer from Condition After TAKED the Drug

A 47-year-old man nearly died after inhaling fentanyl caused his brain to swell, in the first case of its kind linked to the deadly drug.

The condition, toxic leukoencephalopathy, is usually linked to inhaling heroin, and doctors said in a case report that this was the first time it had been linked to illicit fentanyl.

The patient, a Seattle man, was found collapsed in his hotel room in February 2023 while on a business trip.

He was previously healthy with no known medical history, and it was his first time using fentanyl, doctors told the paper. BMJ Case Reports.

Unidentified crushed pills and a white residue were found on the table of his hotel room and white powder was visible around his mouth. He also had dried vomit and little red blood on his lips.

Toxic leukoencephalopathy is a rare condition that causes damage to the brain’s white matter, a network or nerve fibers that allow different parts of the brain to communicate with each other

The condition causes confusion, behavioral changes, decreased physical control, motor problems, unresponsiveness and death.

Toxic leukoencephalopathy has been reported after inhaling heroin, also known as ‘chasing the dragon’.

This involves placing heroin on a piece of aluminum foil, heated from below with a flame, and the vapor is inhaled through a straw or other tube-like structure.

Doctors have said that the white matter can become inflamed and injured due to toxins in heroin and fentanyl that damage the myelin sheath, the insulating layer around the nerves in the brain, or the capillary endothelium, which forms the barrier between the blood and the brain. to damage.

About 17 percent of patients with the condition who inhaled heroin will die. There is no definitive treatment for the condition, but it may include high doses of vitamins C and E.

The white matter inflammation is thought to occur as part of the response the brain undergoes when exposed to heroin.

Emergency medical services gave the man naloxone, a drug that quickly reverses an opioid overdose, but it didn’t work.

He was taken to hospital, where he was found unresponsive.

An MRI brain scan revealed inflammation in the white matter, swelling and damage to the cerebellum – the part of the brain responsible for walking and balance.

A urine test showed very high levels of fentanyl, leading doctors to diagnose the man with toxic leukoencephalopathy caused by fentanyl inhalation.

Although this is the first documented case, Dr. Christopher Eden, a second-year internal medicine resident at the OHSU School of Medicine who was part of the patient’s treatment team, said it is likely that other cases simply went unrecognized, in part because of the fact that relatively little is known about the physiology of the syndrome.

The case is a warning about the dangers of fentanyl, which is cheap, easily available and 50 times more powerful than heroin.

“The use of opioids, especially fentanyl, is very stigmatized,” says Dr. Eden.

He added: ‘This is a case of a middle-class man, late 40s, with children, who used fentanyl for the first time. It shows that fentanyl can affect anyone in our society.”

The patient recovered gradually in the hospital for 26 days, followed by a short stay in a nursing facility to regain speech and function.

He is now back home with his family in the Seattle area and back at work, but he still has no memory of the episode.

Commenting on the incident, he described his recovery as ‘miraculous’ and said: ‘Early on it looked like I would need 24-hour care after discharge, but I focused and worked hard during my therapy session and was determined to not to leave. the hospital is only checked into a group facility for continuing care.”

He expressed his gratitude to all the healthcare professionals who not only saved his life but also enabled him to return to the life he had before, adding: “I often regret what I have done to myself, my wife and my family.’