Fatal Methaemoglobin Intoxication Following Ketamine Infusion in a Depressed MELAS Patient: A Possible Association?
Josef Finsterer, Chiara Lazzeri · 2025
Read Fatal Methaemoglobin Intoxication Following Ketamine Infusion in a Depressed MELAS Patient: A Possible Association? by Josef Finsterer, Chiara Lazzeri (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12663739.txt.
Description
Josef Finsterer and co-authors report the sudden death of a woman with a mitochondrial disease hours after a ketamine infusion, in a 2025 case report. Ketamine is gaining ground for severe depression. The patient also carried post traumatic stress, the second reason for her infusion.
She was found dead at home within half a day, with no clear cause at first. Autopsy found methemoglobin, a disabled form of the blood's oxygen carrier, at seventy-one percent of her hemoglobin, against a normal ceiling of two. The link to ketamine is unproven, but the drug strains mitochondria and the enzyme that repairs this blood fault. Caution and monitoring are urged.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Josef Finsterer, Chiara Lazzeri |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 12 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |