Acute Arsine ($AsH^{3}$) Intoxication

The present report describes a case of arsine intoxication. A 36-year-old male technician who handled gas in a semiconductor laboratory was admitted with severe abdominal pain and dark-red-colored urine. He was exposed to arsine gas while changing a gas bomb, since he mistook an arsine bomb for another, a different kind of a bomb. About 30 minutes after exposure, he suffered colicky abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. He noticed gross hematuria one hour later. On hospital in-patient day 2, the 24 h urine arsenic level was >1,000 µg/day, and the serum arsenic level was 309.4 µg/L. Since BUN/ creatinine level had risen to 33/2.0 mg/dL at this stage, a hemoperfusion was performed. And then hydration was used to maintain urine output at 2 mL/kg/h. His condition had improved, although he complained of a severe headache which was a neuropathic sequela of arsenic exposure. He was discharged with a normal blood arsine level. To our knowledge, this is the second report of arsine poisoning in Korea but somewhat different from the first case.