Almost died while treating tooth decay

Ms. Pham Thi Hai Y, 50 years old, Phu Tho, had severe tooth decay, and the maxillofacial surgeon prescribed root canal treatment. To relieve the pain, the doctor injected 1 unit of Lidocaine. However, just a few minutes after the injection, Ms. Y. felt uncomfortable, had a headache, had difficulty breathing, felt nauseous and vomited, and her blood pressure increased to 190/100 mm/Hg (the patient's baseline blood pressure was 110/70 mm/Hg).

Determining that the patient was poisoned by lidocaine and was in an extremely dangerous condition, Dr. Nguyen Van Hai, Head of the Examination Department, Hung Vuong General Hospital, Phu Tho, raised the red alert throughout the hospital. Many doctors and emergency nurses were mobilized at the same time, ordering a bolus injection of 200ml of Lipofundin and an infusion of 20% Lipofundin emulsion for the purpose of rapid detoxification.

Lidocaine anesthetic.

Fortunately, the patient later escaped the critical condition, blood pressure gradually decreased to 160/90mm/Hg, the dose of Lipofundin emulsion was continued to be maintained and after infusing 3 bottles of Lipofundin 20%, the patient recovered completely, no longer feeling nauseous, headache, shortness of breath. After a few hours, all the patient's activities returned to normal.

Dr. Hai said that Lidocaine is a widely used anesthetic in hospitals, dental and maxillofacial departments, obstetrics... as well as private clinics.

Lidocaine poisoning is a rare but extremely dangerous complication. If poisoning is not treated promptly, the mortality rate is very high.

When anesthetics are introduced into the body, they are absorbed into the bloodstream. The toxicity of anesthetics will affect organs in the body, more or less depending on the concentration of anesthetics in the blood, as well as the patient's constitution.

Most cases of using anesthetics are safe if the physician respects the principles of anesthesia such as dosage, anesthesia technique, and takes into account the patient's physical condition.

The risk of local anesthetic poisoning is higher when local anesthetics are used in areas with many blood vessels such as the head, face, neck, oral cavity, mucous membranes, and genitals. People who are thin, malnourished, have liver, kidney, or heart failure, children, and the elderly are more susceptible to local anesthetic poisoning.

Therefore, Dr. Hai recommends that when people perform procedures that require the use of Lidocaine anesthetic, they should go to a hospital with modern medical equipment and a team of quick, specialized medical staff for quick treatment.