Inhalants For Sexual Pleasure May Cause Eye Damage

In the Vital Signs column in the New York Times, Roni Caryn Robin reports, "Users call them poppers: a class of chemicals called alkyl nitrites that can be inhaled for a quick high, or to enhance sexual pleasure." Now doctors in France are warning that they can also cause eye damage and impaired vision.

In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, the author Catherine Vignal-Clermont, M.D.

Fondation Ophtalmologique Adolphe de Rothschild, Paris, France describe four cases over three months in which patients' vision was affected after they used poppers at parties. Exactly how poppers can affect vision is unknown, but it is likely due to a flood of an alkyl nitrite named isopropyl nitrite, which releases nitric oxide.

Consumers and eye care providers should be aware of the possible retinal toxicity of poppers, especially if there is vision loss in both eyes, the researchers conclude.

Posted in: New England Journal of Medicine, New York Times, Visual impairment