Fentanyl, popularly known as the zombie drug, has been making headlines recently due to the horrors it leaves the victim. A new case study has reportedly published gruesome photos of one endures after taking it.
Zombie Drug Fentanyl's Gruesome Photos
Doctors have released images that show the unsettling effects of a risky fentanyl addition on the human body. Images depict the wounds sustained by a guy in his 30s who had injected xylazine-tainted fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, into his arm and neck veins for three years.
A case study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) stated that the guy had visited the emergency room with increasing chest wounds that had been present for one month.
According to physicians and research authors Jessica O'Neil and Steven Kovach from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, xylazine is increasingly combined with illegal narcotics like fentanyl in the United States, Newsweek reported.
Although it has been found in illicit drug supplies in 48 states, xylazine is most common in Northeastern American cities. In Philadelphia, for instance, xylazine was discovered in more than 90% of the samples of illegal drugs examined in 2021, according to O'Neill and Kovach.
Fentanyl is already a potent substance with a significant risk of overdose, which can be fatal. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the drug has an analgesic potency that is roughly 100 times more than that of morphine and 50 times greater than that of heroin.
The use of xylazine is also linked to the emergence of severe skin ulcerations, or so-called "necrotic wounds," as seen in the pictures of the man in his 30s. The authors were convinced that xylazine damages the blood arteries in the skin, killing skin cells and causing slow-healing or non-healing wounds.
It is unknown exactly when xylazine exposure occurred, and these skin lesions began to form. O'Neill and Kovach noted that they typically manifest themselves following prolonged xylazine use.
According to the researchers, the wounds can be painful and disfiguring, sometimes impairing a person's ability to walk or utilize their upper extremities.
Wounds From Zombie Drugs Fentanyl, Xylazine Can Still Heal
According to the NEJM article, the man's wounds were healed adequately after treatment by the time there was a six-month checkup. For the patient's opioid use disorder, buprenorphine therapy was also started. He then started taking part in an outpatient addiction treatment program.
The location and extent of the wound, the presence of an infection, and how quickly a patient seeks medical attention at the hospital affect how well these wounds heal.
According to our experience, the physicians stated that a minor wound can heal when the injection is stopped, the site is cleaned, and supportive wound care is provided. However, even minor wounds can take weeks and leave visible scars.
Antibiotics may be combined with surgery to remove dead tissue and seal the wound with a skin graft or flap in the case of a big, deep wound with a superimposed infection. They have also, sadly, seen a tiny number of individuals who have experienced such severe tissue death and infection that they have had to amputate limbs.
O'Neill and Kovach claimed that they had assisted in the successful wound healing of several patients, including those with huge, deep wounds requiring complicated procedures.
A team of specialists, including plastic surgeons, dermatologists, infectious disease doctors, and wound care experts, is required for the successful treatment of this disorder, according to O'Neill and Kovach. They added that addiction medicine experts and social workers might be necessary to assist individuals with withdrawal, start treatment for substance use disorders, and connect them to resources for ongoing care.
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