Intra-Arterial Injections of Oral Medications

WITH the ever growing problems of drug abuse, new patterns of complications have appeared. The increasingly common practice among drug abusers of intravenous injection of oral drug preparations has inevitably led to an occasional inadvertent intra-arterial injection. Although numerous reports in the literature describe the consequences of the intra-arterial injection of various parenteral preparations, only a few deal with the complications of the intra-arterial injection of oral medications (Table 1). Recent experience with three such cases, including two with tissue loss, prompted this report.Case ReportsCase 1. A 32-year-old addict injected 2 50-mg pentazocine tablets (Talwin) dissolved in tap . . .