23-Year-Old Suffers Frostbite After Using Whippets

Here’s another reason to stay away from whippets, just in case you needed one. Doctors this week have reported a strange case of frostbite via nitrous oxide.

Doctors at the University of Virginia described the chilling injury in a paper published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The victim, a 23-year-old man, developed frostbite in his mouth and throat immediately after inhaling a nitrous oxide canister. Fortunately, the man was given supportive treatment and recovered no worse for wear.

Nitrous oxide gas has all sorts of legitimate applications, from acting as a medical sedative to helping create whipped cream. But it’s also used recreationally to induce euphoric, if short-lasting, effects. Recreational users typically get their nitrous oxide from whipped cream canisters, which gave rise to the drug’s common nickname of “whippets” (you might also know it as “whippits” or “laughing gas”).

Common side effects of whippets include dizziness, dissociation, and a momentary loss of motor control. But the compressed gas released from these canisters is also plenty cold, reaching temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. And that cold is certainly enough to trigger frostbite—the damage caused by ice crystals forming in our skin and tissues—in body parts inadvertently exposed to the gas while using whippets.

According to the report, the man sought medical care after enduring two straight days of painful swallowing and hoarseness in his throat. A physical examination revealed swollen white blotches along the roof of his mouth, uvula, and throat, a potential sign of frostbitten tissue (a gnarly close-up of the frostbite can be seen here). He admitted to the doctors that his symptoms began right after he had inhaled nitrous oxide from a handheld canister.

“Had he not been forthcoming with that information, that probably wouldn’t have been something that crossed my mind,” report co-author Michael Patrizio, associate director of acute care at UVA, told NBC News. “I would have thought a viral infection—mono, strep throat—or an STI in the throat.”

While whippet-induced frostbite isn’t unprecedented, this case was a bit more unusual. Most injuries typically involve frostbite to people’s thighs or hands. In some cases, they have been so severe that they required skin grafts and surgery to treat. But thankfully, the man in this case only needed over-the-counter painkillers and steroid paste to ease his symptoms until his mouth healed on its own.

Here’s hoping the painful experience taught the man an important lesson. Long-term recreational use of nitrous oxide is known to deplete the body of vitamin B12, which can lead to serious complications like paralysis and permanent neurological damage.