Treatment of Methanol and Isopropanol Poisoning with Intravenous Fomepizole

Abstract

Case Report: We report a case of mixed methanol and isopropanol poisoning in a patient who refused dialysis but agreed to treatment with intravenous fomepizole. The patient was asymptomatic on arrival, with initial blood methanol and isopropanol concentrations of 146 mg/dL and 39 mg/dL, respectively. Blood ethanol was undetectable. The patient was treated with fomepizole twice daily intravenously until blood methanol was undetectable. No side effects of therapy, other than transient eosinophilia, were observed. The evolution was uneventful and no metabolites of either alcohol were detected at any time during the hospitalization. The decay of plasma methanol and isopropanol under fomepizole treatment were well described by first-order kinetics. The plasma elimination half-lives of methanol and isopropanol were 47.6 hours and 27.7 hours, respectively. Fomepizole appears to have been effective in blocking the toxic metabolism of both methanol and isopropanol and was associated with a favorable outcome.