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I Inhaling nitrous oxide from pressurized canisters, commonly called doing “whippets” or “ballooning,” filling balloons with the gas, can damage your mouth, voice box, and respiratory tract. A case report from the University of Virginia in the New England Journal of Medicine documents the nasty side of laughing gas use.

A 23-year-old man presented to doctors there with a 2 day history of painful swallowing and hoarseness just following use of a “whippet” canister. Examination revealed swelling, redness, and peeling mouth and throat linings and a nasty ulceration on his right vocal cord. 

The cause of these injuries: frostbite.  Nitrous oxide, stored in pressurized liquid form, rapidly cools when released and converted to a gas. Inhaling it directly from a canister can expose your mouth and throat to extreme cold with partial or complete freezing and tissue damage similar to what you’d get from frostbite.

The patient in question received oral and topical painkillers as well as an oral anti-inflammatory paste.  He never returned for follow up so we don’t know how his injuries healed.

Recreational nitrous oxide use is popular but not without its dangers when the gas is directly inhaled from an aerosol canister.  The common wisdom is that laughing gas is harmless, but, in addition to frostbite, its use can trigger nerve damage, vitamin B12 depletion, and multiple neurological issues with repeated use.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm2502232

#nitrousoxide #laughinggas #whippets #ballooning #frostbite