A recent study found that chest wall rigidity may be partially responsible for some of the deaths related to the intravenous injection of illicit fentanyl. Chest wall rigidity, or wooden chest syndrome, could be a significant and previously unreported factor leading to mortality in this drug abuse community subset, begging the need for a heightened awareness and appropriate education in this population in respect to the lethality of illicit fentanyl use.

"Although more studies need to be done to definitively prove the connection, we believe that fentanyl clearly plays a major factor in sudden onset chest wall rigidity. In review of our data, we are fairly convinced of the association," says Henry A. Spiller, MS, DABAT, FAACT, Department of Pediatrics, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Childrens Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, and adjunct assistant clinical professor at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus.

Chest wall rigidity is an occasional adverse event associated with the rapid intravenous administration of lipophilic synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, acetylfentanyl, alfentanyl, and sulfentanyl. Along with fentanyl slowly creeping its way into the heroin trade as a stronger, more desired product for drug abusers, Spiller says that there has been a recent surge in illicit fentanylrelated deaths. Fentanyl use in the drug abuse...