No vaping

Canada May Have Found New Vaping Complication: Popcorn Lung

By Kelly Young

Edited by Susan Sadoughi, MD, and Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, FACP, DFASAM

Canadian physicians may have identified a new type of lung injury linked to vaping. In CMAJ, they report a potential case of vaping-associated bronchiolitis obliterans, a form of which is known as "popcorn lung."

Previously, a number of workers in factories making microwave popcorn developed "popcorn lung" after inhaling the flavoring chemical diacetyl, which is also used in e-liquids.

An otherwise healthy, 17-year-old male with a history of heavy, daily vaping presented with cough, dyspnea, and fever. Tests for infectious agents were negative. Computed tomography revealed a diffuse tree-in-bud pattern, which differs from what has been observed in patients with e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI).

The patient developed refractory hypercapnia and required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, but he improved with corticosteroids. He was hospitalized for 47 days and still had impaired lung function at 4 months.

Separately, a correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicinedescribes autopsy findings from a young man who died from untreated EVALI.

CMAJ article (Free)

CMAJ editorial (Free)

NEJM correspondence on pathology of vaping-related lung illness (Free)

NEJM correspondence on pulmonary illnesses (Free)

Background: Physician's First Watch coverage of bronchiolitis obliterans in man who ate microwave popcorn (Free)

NEJM E-Cigarettes and Vaping-Related Disease page (Free)

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Benjamin Hidalgo-Matlock
Skin Care Physicians of Costa Rica

Clinica Victoria en San Pedro: 4000-1054
Momentum Escazu: 2101-9574

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