A brief clinical report of three cases of shoe-dye poisoning is presented in order to call attention to this form of poisoning, to which children are particularly susceptible.
While from 1900 to 1926 sixty-one cases were reported in the literature, little has appeared in journals of pediatrics, although it is a condition that pediatricians may be called on to diagnose.
The outstanding symptom is general cyanosis, which is as marked as in congenital cardiac disease. This begins from one-half to several hours after the shoes are put on. It is accompanied by general weakness, chills, headache, vertigo, somnolence, nausea and occasionally by stupor. Prostration is present in severe cases. The pulse rate is rapid.
Unless this form of poisoning is borne in mind, diagnosis is impossible, and the cyanosis remains a serious and unexplained problem to the physician and parents.
Poisoning is produced by shoe dye applied to tan shoes