Acute respiratory distress syndrome following asthma-like symptoms from massive ingestion of a monoethanolamine-containing detergent.

A 65-y-old man ingested about 600 mL of an alkaline detergent (pH 11.7) containing 3.3% monoethanolamine (MEA). After vomiting with choking several times, he presented to the emergency center with asthma-like symptoms 95 min after ingestion. Despite treatment with bronchodilators, steroids, and epinephrine, respiratory dysfunction progressed to acute respiratory distress syndrome resulting in death on the 4th hospital day. This is the first report of serious acute oral ingestion of an MEA-containing product; MEA aspirated into the respiratory tract may cause not only bronchial asthma symptoms, but may also severely injure the lung parenchyma.