Fire-eater's lung.

Jolanta Załęska,Lilia Jakubowska,Jacek Grudny,Kazimierz Roszkowski-Śliż,Janusz Szopiński,Jacek Zych,Arkadiusz Błaszczyk,Mateusz Polaczek

doi:10.5603/arm.2016.0044

Abstract

Fire eater's lung (FEL) is an acute hydrocarbon pneumonitis caused by aspiration or inhalation into airways of liquid hydrocarbons. This disorder is classified into distinct form of chemical toxic pneumonitis. An amateur fire-eater is presented in this work. He accidentally aspirated into airways about 1/3 of glass of grill lighter fluid composed of mixture of liquid hydrocarbons. A few hours after this incident he had severe symptoms like weakness, high temperature, midsternal pleuritic chest pain, myalgia of the back, shortness of breath, and dry cough. Radiologic examination revealed consolidations with well-defined cavitary lesions (pneumatoceles) in lower lobes mainly in the left lower lobe. After one week of this event clinical improvement was observed. The lesions resolved nearly completly during three months. The review of the literature connected with fire-eater's lung is also presented.

Highlights

Fire eater’s lung (FEL) or fire-breather’s lung is an acute hydrocarbon pneumonitis caused by accidental aspiration into airways of liquid hydrocarbons
An acute hydrocarbon pneumonitis usually occurs after accidental ingestion or inhalation of Liquid hydrocarbons (LHs) by infants, by elderly persons, by fire-eaters, by industry workers, mainly petrochemical workers, painters or sometimes by the waste workers
Hydrocarbon pneumonitis is caused by aspiration of volatile hydrocarbons which are characterized by low viscosity and low surface tension

Summary

Introduction

Fire eater’s lung (FEL) or fire-breather’s lung is an acute hydrocarbon pneumonitis caused by accidental aspiration into airways of liquid hydrocarbons. This disorder is a distinct form of chemical pneumonitis [1−5]. The first description of FEL was done by Gerbeaux et al [8] in 1971 They reported a history of an infant who ingested fluid with liquid hydrocarbons. The results of bacteriological examination of blood and sputum were negative After one week he was admitted to the National Institute of TB and Lung Diseases in Warsaw. On admission he had exertional dyspnea, dry cough, sometimes with expectorating of small amount of transparent sputum. Chest x-ray and HRCT showed nearly complete regression of lung consolidations (Fig. 4)

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Discussion

Conclusions