Report of a Rare Case of Unprescribed Long-term Use of Dexamethasone Injection for 20 Years - page 240 - vist 553

Background and Most corticosteroids are dose- and duration-dependent. Dexamethasoe has been the highly used drug in the country in the last years, and can produce a pseudo-kushing syndrome if use in the long run. In the present paper, we will report a case of dexamethasone use for twenty years. The Patient: The patient is 52-year old man, married but has no child; he has started injecting dexamethasone 30 years ago; he keeps cattle and has a farm too. The patient was hospitalized first with a diagnosis of drug-resisitant brucellosis in Jovein, Iran. Laboratory tests indiated anemia, leukocytosis, hypocalemia, hypocalcemia and hyponathremia; he was discharged from the hospital four days later. Two days later, he was referred to neurocerebral surgeon due to backache, lower and upper limbs numbness, and walking disorder with a diagnosis of spastic quadriparesia and babinsky. Sixteen days after that, he underwent a total laminectomy surgery of C3-C6 with the diagnosis of cervical myelopathy. He had already been hospitalized in Mashad, Iran for a fever of unknown causes two years before that, and cataract surgery of both eyes. Long-term use of dexamthasone has caused six hospitalizations, diagnostic measures, medical interventions and surgical procedures for the patient reported here.