Prolonged hemodialysis in methanol intoxication.

Methanol poisoning may be treated conservatively by inducing a diuresis and administering ethanol to halt the metabolism of methanol to more toxic metabolites. In severe intoxications, hemodialysis may be necessary to remove the toxins and limit the metabolic disturbances. The duration of dialysis needed to achieve this is unclear. A case report of a severe methanol poisoning is reported which required 21 hours of hemodialysis to bring the serum methanol levels down to a nontoxic level.