Fatal Benzyl Alcohol Poisoning in Neonatal Intensi

Authors: FREDERICK H LOVEJOY

Publish Date: 1982/11/01

Volume: 136, Issue: 11, Pages: 974-975

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Abstract

In May 1982 the Food and Drug Administration urged hospitals and pediatricians to discontinue the use of intravenous IV infusions of saline solution containing benzyl alcohol as well as medications containing benzyl alcohol as a preservative in premature infants More than 50000 letters were mailed to pediatricians hospital pharmacists and hospital administrators notifying them of the problem1 The FDA based its recommendation on the results of two studies that suggested that benzyl alcohol used as a preservative in small multipledose vials of sodium chloride solution or water for injection had caused a fatal toxic syndrome in premature infantsThe suspicion that a benzyl alcohol preservative was associated with these neonatal deaths was first raised by Gershanik and associates2 from the Southern Baptist Hospital New Orleans at the January 1982 meeting of the Southern Society for Pediatric Research Gershanik and his associates described five neonates during a 16month period

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