Exogenous Lipoid Pneumonia Due To Intramuscular Injection of Synthol in a Bodybuilder

We report a case of chronic exogenous lipoid pneumonia that developed due to recurrent intramuscular use of “Synthol”, a synthetic oil derivative, for muscle filling. 40-year-old man, who had used Synthol to enlarge his pectoral muscles, was admitted to the chest diseases polyclinic with shortness of breath progressing within a year. On computerized tomography of thorax there were reticulations and septal thickenings consistent with interstitial lung disease. The patient underwent bronchoscopy. Bronchoalveolar lavage and transbronchial biopsy (TBB) were performed. In the histopathologic study of TBB, intraalveolar and interstitial fatty macrophages, giant cells around fat particles and extracellular fat particles were observed and the specimen was reported as "lipoid pneumonia". According to our knowledge, exogenous lipoid pneumonia due to intramuscular use of Synthol has not been reported heretofore and this is the first case in the literature