N
F
E
R
H
NEWS
STUDY BACKS UP
THC EVALI
LINK
Cannabis compound found
in 100% of samples
Words: Gordon Stribling
The vast majority of young people hospitalised with serious
vape-related lung injury at a Dallas hospital vaped cannabis, not
nicotine, a recent study has revealed.
The study, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics,
analysed the characteristics of 13 patients hospitalised with
e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury, also
known as EVALI.
Vaping THC was reported by 92 percent of patients while just one
claimed to have exclusively used nicotine.
However, the caregiver of this individual had a suspicion that
they were using other substances, though a drug screening was
not conducted.
All of the 11 patients who were screened were found to have THC
in their system.
The findings suggest that teens hospitalised with the condition
were not honest about past or current drug use.
UT Southwestern Medical Center paediatric pulmonologist Devika
Rao, who led the study, said: “In taking care of hospitalized teens
with EVALI, we found that they were very hesitant to disclose
their vaping habits.
“A multidisciplinary effort – discussion among emergency
medicine physicians, hospital medicine physicians,
pulmonologists, toxicologists, behavioural medicine specialists,
and intensivists – is key to successful treatment of these
patients.”
A previous diagnosis of substance use disorder was present in
26 VM29