Case Reports of Intravenous Drug Use of Elemental Mercury as an Aphrodisiac: A Call for Surgical Intervention

This report describes two cases of intravenous injection of elemental mercury. The presence of mercury in the environment is due to pollution from power plants and in food, particularly fish, and dental amalgams. One patient succumbed and the other remains asymptomatic two years after the surgical removal of all the injected mercury. Management of intravenous injection of elemental mercury (intended to be an aphrodisiac in these two cases) is discussed here and the need for surgical removal of all accessible mercury has been emphasized. In case no.1, it is difficult to come to any conclusion as we do not have information about the duration of exposure and the volume of mercury injected. In contrast, in case no.2, all the metallic elemental mercury was removed on two occasions and the patient has led an uneventful life showing no clinical signs of mercury poisoning in the follow-up period of two years.