A silent epidemic: five-year study on methanol poisoning and its ocular aftermath (2018-2022)

Visual impairment is the most common complications of methanol poisoning. In this study, we investigated the frequency of vision loss following methanol poisoning in patients admitted to poisoning centers at provincial hospital in Urmia.

Patients diagnosed with methanol poisoning between 2018 and 2022 who were hospitalized in the poisoning centers at Urmia were evaluated. The data were then collected and analyzed using SPSS version 21 software.

124 patients with an average age of 34.89 years, 93.5% of whom were male, were evaluated. Blurred vision with 42.7% and decreased level of consciousness with 33.1% were the most common complaints of patient, and ethanol therapy with 91.9% was the most common treatment approach. 60.5% of the patients had complete recovery, 6.5% had decreased visual acuity, 13.7% of the patients had developed blindness, and 19.4% of the patients died. The final outcome was not correlated to the amount of consumed alcoholic beverages (p = 0.21), CO2 level (p = 0.33) and gender (p = 0.35), but the pH and HCO₃ of deceased people were significantly lower (p > 0.001) than survived patients. Patients who died or those who lost their vision were older (p = 0.004) and had referred to medical centers significantly later than others (p < 0.001).

Early referral and controlling the blood pH play critical role in managing the patients with methanol poisoning.