Adverse drug reaction, metabolic deficiency & odor

DRUG ADVERSE REACTION TO ANESTHESIA
AND ODOR

On Tuesday, my younger son had knee surgery (ACL transplant, Lateral Meniscectomy, and Medial Meniscal Repair), with general anesthesia. His adverse reaction to the general anesthesia brought to mind Dr. Elizabeth Shephard’s PowerPoint presentation, FMO3 – a protein that can multi-task that she created for MEBO's annual Miami Beach Meetup/Conference. This PowerPoint features the importance of Pharmacogenetics & Personalized Medicine for persons with metabolic deficiencies that result in adverse drug reactions, and in some cases death.

My son’s adverse reaction involved uncontrollable vomiting of bile and tremors, since he is epileptic (see articles on TMA and epilepsy, learning disabilities, anxiety, and more). The biggest concern was that he would vomit during seizure activity resulting in choking and pulmonary aspiration of bile. So he was administered propofol to render him unconscious in hopes that when he would regain consciousness, this reaction would have subsided, but it did not. This adverse reaction lasted four hours, in spite of Sofran administered intraveneously numerous times. Thankfully, he never choked or aspirated bilious vomitus and his tremors subsided, although the nausea and lightheadedness has lasted four days up to now; and we will see how long these symptoms will linger.

The surgical staff was very concerned during this episode, and relieved after these symptoms subsided. They made it a point to explain to him that this reaction was not an allergy, but simply an adverse reaction to anesthesia. The anesthesiologist recommended that he warn future anesthesiologists that he does have adverse reactions to anesthesia, so they use other drugs for future surgeries. This recommendation is in line with “personalized medicine” that Dr. Shephard discuses in her PowerPoint.

Ever since this incident on July 31st, there has been a strong odor about him, which has invaded his room and is impossible to remove with fans and opening the window. He is drinking plenty of water to flush his system, but due to his surgery, he cannot do cardiovascular exercise to expedite the process of cleansing these drugs out of his body.

UPDATE 04AUG12:
Today is the first day the odor is not detectable
(lasted 4 days).

More research into pharmacogenetics and sufferers of metabolic body odor conditions needs to be carried out, in order to help physicians develop the perfect personalized medical treatment for each individual.

María

María de la Torre
Founder and Executive Director

A Public Charity
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