Smoke inhalation is the leading cause of death for fire victims. It is caused by two poisonous substances in smoke: cyanide and carbon monoxide. However, according to scientists, cyanide is responsible for the greater number of deaths.
Until now, there had been no quick treatment for cyanide poisoning, which would be especially useful in fires where there are many casualties. Although there are antidotes that are administered intravenously to alleviate the effects of poisoning, many of them cannot be administered to patients who have been exposed to smoke inhalation.
Scientists from the University of California Irvine Medical Center (USA) are giving hope for a new drug. They are intensively researching a new antidote called cobinamide, which can be administered intravenously or intramuscularly in cases of massive cyanide poisoning. They are currently testing the effectiveness of the product on animals – New Zealand white rabbits.
Researchers ventilated six rabbits with smoke until they reached toxic levels of carbon monoxide in their bodies. At the same time, they were given intravenous cyanide infusions. The animals were then divided into two groups: one group was administered cobinamide intravenously, the other group was used as control.
The rabbits were constantly monitored for, inter alia, the course of gas exchange, hemodynamics, the level of respiratory gases in the blood, the concentration of cyanide, cytochrome c, etc.
The results showed that intravenous administration of cobinamide reverses the toxic effects of cyanide on the organisms of smoked animals. No side effects caused by the study drug were noted.
Scientists therefore concluded that cobinamide is an extremely promising antidote for cyanide poisoning in fire victims. They hope that once it has passed human testing and received favorable FDA approval, it will become a common remedy for mass smoke poisoning.
The results of these studies were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians – CHEST 2012, held October 20-25 in Atlanta
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