Canadian researchers say they have developed a game-changing method to treat alcohol poisoning, reports The Canadian Press. It involves literally breathing alcohol out of the body by hyperventilating, and is three times faster than relying on the liver alone. The small study appeared recently in the journal Scientific Reports, published by Nature Research.
Lead researcher Joseph Fisher, a senior scientist at University Health Network's Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, calls the technique a "no-brainer" that doesn't have side effects and involves a very simple mechanical device to assist breathing.
He says the process simply takes advantage of the fact that each exhalation, along with carbon dioxide, contains alcohol that has evaporated from the blood into the lungs. "And the more breaths you take, the more evaporates. It's that simple," says Fisher.
Of course hyperventilating causes its own issues – including light-headedness, tingling or numbness on hands and feet, and fainting, The Canadian Press story continues.
Fisher's approach relies on a device that administers the exact amount of carbon dioxide needed to maintain normal levels in the blood. It is the size of a small briefcase and uses a valve system, connecting tubes, a mask, and a small tank with compressed carbon dioxide.
Small study
Fisher told The Canadian Press that a small proof of concept study involving five male volunteers proved the concept works, but more extensive clinical trials are needed.
Subjects each drank about half a glass of vodka and were able to eliminate alcohol three times faster than through the liver alone, says Fisher. He says the approach is as effective as using a hyperbaric chamber, a much more involved set-up that delivers oxygen in a pressurized room or chamber.
He hopes it could one day serve as a powerful tool in any hospital emergency department. "I used to be an emergency doc and I know they have big issues with patients who – on top of everything else – are also alcohol-intoxicated," says Fisher.
As it stands, there is no treatment for alcohol intoxication, and there is no way to speed up the rate at which the liver works to clear alcohol from the body, according to The Canadian Press.
Fisher says the technique is especially efficient if intoxication is high, making it less useful after a casual night of drinking, for instance. Nor does he recommend people try to hyperventilate on their own. The treatment is really designed for severe cases that can be life-threatening or endanger organs such as the liver or brain.
Full story in The Canadian Press, see link below.
Accelerated ethanol elimination via the lungs
Nature Scientific Reports. Volume 10, Article number 19249 (2020). Published on 12 November 2020.
Authors
Jesse M. Klostranec, Diana Vucevic, Adrian P Crawley, Lashmi Venkatraghavan, Olivia Sobczyk, James Duffin, Kevin Sam, Royce Holmes, Ludwik Fedorko, David J Mikulis and Joseph A Fisher
Abstract
Ethanol poisoning is endemic the world over. Morbidity and mortality depend on blood ethanol levels which in turn depend on the balance between its rates of absorption and clearance.
Clearance of ethanol is mostly at a constant rate via enzymatic metabolism. We hypothesized that isocapnic hyperpnea (IH), previously shown to be effective in acceleration of clearance of vapour anesthetics and carbon monoxide, would also accelerate the clearance of ethanol.
In this proof-of-concept pilot study, five healthy male subjects were brought to a mildly elevated blood ethanol concentration (~ 0.1%) and ethanol clearance monitored during normal ventilation and IH on different days.
IH increased elimination rate of ethanol in proportion to blood levels, increasing the elimination rate more than three-fold. Increased veno-arterial ethanol concentration differences during IH verified the efficacy of ethanol clearance via the lung.
These data indicate that IH is a nonpharmacologic means to accelerate the elimination of ethanol by superimposing first order elimination kinetics on underlying zero order liver metabolism. Such kinetics may prove useful in treating acute severe ethanol intoxication.
[link url="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alcohol-poisoning-hyperventilating-as-treatment-1.5799432"]The Canadian Press story – Hyperventilating touted as possible treatment for alcohol poisoning[/link]
[link url="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76233-9"]Nature Research – Scientific Reports article – Accelerated ethanol elimination via the lungs[/link]