Cardiac arrhythmias during phenol face peeling.

Thirty-nine percent of 54 phenol face peel patients treated rapidly developed some form of cardiac arrhythmia. When half the face was treated on consecutive days, only 22 percent of 100 patients developed cardiac arrhythmias and these were less severe. Serum phenol levels varied from 4.4 to 337.1 mg/L. Neither age, sex, nor previous cardiac history were accurate predictors of cardiac arrhythmia susceptibility. There was no predictable relationship between serum phenol level and the appearance of cardiac arrhythmia. The duration of the cardiac arrhythmias (2 to 19 minutes) suggests that the risk of cardiac arrhythmia in phenol peeling can be reduced by dividing the face into several units and spacing the application of phenol to each unit 20 minutes apart.