Acute megaloblastic anemia caused by inhalation of nitrous oxide in a patient with multiple autoimmune pathology.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20344/amp.1798Abstract
Although megaloblastic anemias are generally regarded as chronic conditions of insidious appearance, a megaloblastic state can arise over the course of only a few days due to acute folate or vitamin B12 deficiency. One of the most common causes, though seldom reported, is the nitrous oxide (N02) action in tissue. In fact N02, a volatile substance commonly used in anaesthesia, destroys methylcobalamin, leading to the rapid development of a megaloblastic haematopoiesis. This phenomenon may occur in patients without previous vitamin B12 deficit, but is more frequent and severe when there is a pre-existent deficiency state. A case report is described of a patient with femoral fracture who developed acute anemia after surgery and a latent pernicious anemia was revealed upon investigation.Downloads
Downloads
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
All the articles published in the AMP are open access and comply with the requirements of funding agencies or academic institutions. The AMP is governed by the terms of the Creative Commons ‘Attribution – Non-Commercial Use - (CC-BY-NC)’ license, regarding the use by third parties.
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain approval for the reproduction of figures, tables, etc. from other publications.
Upon acceptance of an article for publication, the authors will be asked to complete the ICMJE “Copyright Liability and Copyright Sharing Statement “(http://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/info/AMP-NormasPublicacao.pdf) and the “Declaration of Potential Conflicts of Interest” (http:// www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author to acknowledge receipt of the manuscript.
After publication, the authors are authorised to make their articles available in repositories of their institutions of origin, as long as they always mention where they were published and according to the Creative Commons license.