Solvents have many potential risks in common, including pneumonia, cardiac failure or arrest, and aspiration of vomit. The inhaling of some solvents can cause hearing loss, limb spasms, and damage to the central nervous system and brain. Serious but potentially reversible effects include liver and kidney damage and blood-oxygen depletion. Death from inhalants is generally caused by a very high concentration of fumes. Deliberately inhaling solvents from an attached paper or plastic bag or in a closed area greatly increases the chances of suffocation. Brain damage is typically seen with chronic long-term use as opposed to short-term exposure. Parkinsonism (see: Signs and symptoms of Parkinsons disease) has been associated with huffing. Female inhalant users who are pregnant may have adverse effects on the fetus, and the baby may be smaller when it is born and may need additional health care (similar to those seen with alcohol – fetal alcohol syndrome). There is some evidence of birth defects and disabilities in babies born to women who sniffed solvents such as gasoline. In the short term, death from solvent use occurs most commonly from aspiration of vomit while unconscious or from a combination of respiratory depression and hypoxia, the second cause being especially a risk with heavier-than-air vapors such as butane or gasoline vapor. Deaths typically occur from complications related to excessive sedation and vomiting. Actual overdose from the drug does occur, however, and inhaled solvent use is statistically more likely to result in life-threatening respiratory depression than intravenous use of opioids such as heroin.
Monofixation syndrome (MFS) (also: microtropia or microstrabismus) is an eye condition defined by less-than-perfect binocular vision. It is defined by a small angle deviation with suppression of the deviated eye and the presence of binocular peripheral fusion. That is, MFS implies peripheral fusion without central fusion. Aside the manifest small-angle deviation ("tropia"), subjects with MFS often also have a large-angle latent deviation (phoria). Their stereoacuity is often in the range of 3000 to 70 arcsecond, and a small central suppression scotoma of 2 to 5 deg.A rare condition, MFS is estimated to affect only 1% of the general population. There are three distinguishable forms of this condition:  primary constant, primary decompensating and consecutive MFS. It is believed that primary MFS is a result of a primary sensorial defect, predisposing to anomalous retinal correspondence.Secondary MFS is a frequent outcome of surgical treatment of congenital esotropia. A study of 1981 showed MFS to result in the vast majority of cases if surgical alignment is reached before the age of 24 months and only in a minority of cases if it is reached later.MFS was first described by Marshall Parks. References


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