The Drug-Induced Respiratory Disease Website

When taken orally longterm, particularly in patients with chronic aspiration from oropharyngeal dysphagia, swallowing disorders, achalasia or with prior radiation therapy to the neck, machine or mineral oil, paraffin, shark liver oil or vaseline may cause diffuse or localized opacities or a mass-like lesion of lipoid pneumonia (the latter is named paraffinoma). Involved areas can be low attenuation on HRCT, high signal intensity on T1 and T2 spin-echo on MRI and tracer-avid on PET scan. Series and reviews at PMID 8836660 and 20118714. Specifics of mineral oil/lipid staining and tinctorial histochemistry at PMID 8129503. Whole lung lavage may be considered in severe cases or in those refractory to oil withdrawal (PMID 27287091)