Whole lung lavage therapy: Treatment for lung injury caused by paraquat poisoning

Paraquat poisoning is characterized by multi-organ failure and pulmonary fibrosis with respiratory failure, resulting in high mortality and morbidity. To serious paraquat patients, the effectiveness of conventional treatments is unsuccessful. Whole lung lavage is a technique that was developed in the 1960s with the purpose of removing lipoproteinaceous material that accumulates in the bronchi of patients with alveolar proteinosis, leading to clinical and functional improvement. Pneumoconioses are characterized as irreversible, progressive respiratory diseases. No effective therapy exists to prevent progression of these diseases. Whole lung lavage might limit the rate of disease progression through the removal of dust, inflammatory cells, and cytokines. Whole lung lavage is also used successfully to treat other lung diseases such as endogenous lipoid pneumonia and mineral oil lipoid pneumonia. Paraquat poisoning could not be controlled by only one method and combined therapies are needed. So, we hypothesized that whole lung lavage will provide a new therapy of acute lung injury caused by paraquat. On the base of conventional therapy for paraquat poisoning, whole lung lavage could be considered in the early time of poisoning and then followed by glucocorticoid for patients with moderate to severe paraquat poisoning. Key words: Paraquat, poisoning, acute lung injury, whole lung lavage.