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Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.

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The prognosis for mercury poisoning depends on many factors:

1. The chemical form of mercury (inhalation of vapor is worse than inorganic which may be worse than organic)
   
   
2. The dose or amount of mercury poisoning (more leads to poor outcomes or death)
   
   
3. Age of person (fetus, neonate, and infants more susceptible to lower doses of mercury)
   
   
4. Length of exposure (longer exposures result in poor outcomes or death)
   
   
5. Route of exposure (inhalation is worst, followed by ingestion, and then skin exposure)
   
   
6. Persons overall health before exposure (people with preexisting medical problems do worse than healthy people)

Early treatment of any form of mercury has a good chance of improving the prognosis (reducing tissue damage and neurological effects of the toxins). Unfortunately, if the diagnosis and subsequent treatment is delayed, which has happened often in the past, many outcomes are only fair to poor with the patient experiencing residual or profound neurological deficits. This outcome is often seen with organic mercury poisoning because exposure usually occurs over a long length of time before characteristic signs and symptoms develop.

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