❗️Medical Case #3 - Green Urine Mystery

🚨 A 62-year-old man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease presented to the emergency department after 2 days of dyspnea and was found to have respiratory failure.⁣

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🏥 Intubation was performed, mechanical ventilation and a continuous infusion of propofol were initiated, and the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Five days after admission to the ICU his urine became a greenish color. ⁣

🟢 Green discoloration of the urine may be attributed to a number of factors, including medication, obstructive jaundice, and infection. Once the propofol infusion was discontinued, the urine color returned to normal. ⁣

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💉 Propofol is metabolized primarily in the liver and eliminated through the kidneys. The metabolites are not nephrotoxic, and propofol-induced green discoloration of the urine is a benign and uncommon phenomenon.⁣

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Case from New England Journal of Medicine 2020; 383:e128⁣

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