Water Intoxication and Death Associated with the Use of Posterior Pituitary Injection for Surgical Hemostasis

Abstract

Posterior pituitary injection is an extract prepared from the dried posterior lobe of the pituitary gland from domestic animals containing two octapeptide hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin. Posterior pituitary injection carries an approved therapeutic indication as an adjunct measure for achieving surgical hemostasis. We report a case of cerebral edema and death attributed to water intoxication in a child who had received a large volume of free water concurrent with posterior pituitary injection to control bleeding after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.