Gastric lavage is generally not recommended in Super Vasmol (hair-dye/PPD) poisoning. It may worsen injury because the product can contain resorcinol, which is corrosive, and patients can rapidly develop severe mouth, throat, and neck swelling. Passing a tube can trigger bleeding, vomiting, or aspiration and can be dangerous if the airway is not secured.

A review specifically on Super Vasmol concludes that gastric lavage should not be performed because of its ingredients and airway risks: review article. More broadly, toxicology guidance advises that gastric lavage should not be used routinely in poisoning and is contraindicated with corrosive ingestion or an unprotected airway.

If this ingestion has just occurred, go to an emergency department immediately or call local emergency services. Do not induce vomiting, give home remedies, or attempt stomach washing.

In Super Vasmol (PPD hair dye) poisoning, acute shortness of breath is more likely to be upper-airway angioedema/obstruction than heart failure or cardiogenic pulmonary edema.

Look urgently for:

This is an airway emergency. Call emergency services / shift to ED or ICU immediately. Early expert airway management is needed, often intubation before swelling worsens; surgical airway may be required if intubation becomes impossible. Do not delay for chest X-ray or assume it is pulmonary edema. PPD poisoning characteristically causes severe cervicofacial and upper-airway edema, with later rhabdomyolysis, hyperkalemia, and acute kidney injury, as described in this clinical report.

Pulmonary edema or cardiac dysfunction can occur but is less typical. Check SpO₂, ECG, BP, ABG, bedside lung and cardiac ultrasound, chest X-ray, troponin/BNP as clinically appropriate. Sudden breathlessness with pink frothy sputum, diffuse lung crackles, high JVP, or B-lines may support pulmonary edema, but stridor plus cervicofacial swelling points to upper-airway obstruction.