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Reminder of important clinical lesson
Brake fluid toxicity feigning brain death
  1. Shahpar Nahrir,
  2. Shobhit Sinha,
  3. Khurram A Siddiqui
  1. Department of Neurology, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Shahpar Nahrir, s_nahrir{at}yahoo.com

Brake fluid (glycol-based) toxicity is known to have a protean of central and peripheral nervous system manifestations. The principal component of this household poison is ethylene glycol. Toxic effect is generally attributed to peri-vascular deposition of calcium oxalate crystals in various tissues. However, clinical features resembling brain death have rarely been reported. We report a case of brake fluid toxicity simulating brain death in a 21-year-old healthy man who ingested it as a recreational agent.

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Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Patient consent Obtained.