There is a new dangerous trend due to the use of nitrous oxide, warn doctors from the largest hospital in our country, UMBAL “St. George“ in Plovdiv. A number of young people have been admitted with frostbite after using the dangerous substance. They have suffered severe and deep skin damage and their treatment will be long.
Many used balloons and discarded empty nitrous oxide bottles. This is what a NOVA team came across in several parks near the most visited place in Plovdiv - the Rowing Base. Less than a kilometer from there is the University Hospital “St. George“. Dr. Yordan Megenov welcomes us at the Clinic of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery. He says that he admitted three young people with frostbite from nitrous oxide in just one month.
"Young people from 18 to about 30 years old. They arrive with symptoms rather local to the place of frostbite, which is between the thighs, because they - squeezing the bottle with the gas, expanding it and inflating it into a balloon, lose sensitivity and these deep burns or, more precisely, frostbite occur. As for their symptoms, they are not so noticeable in our country, because they come a long time after they have used the gas. The injuries occur on the inner surface of the thighs," explains Dr. Yordan Megenov, Clinic for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at the University Hospital "St. George".
Usually these patients arrive too late, when the injured area has lost its sensitivity and most often end up on the operating table, the doctors say.
"Frost injury from nitrous oxide can be compared to a burn from hot oil or scalding with boiling water. Treatment is often quite long, as the damage is deep," emphasizes Dr. Megenov.