case of acute intermittent porphyria in the emergency department

Acute Intermittent Porphyria [AlP] is a rare hereditary disorder of porphyrin metabolism, characterised by episodes of gastrointestinal, psychiatric, or neurologic symptoms We report here a 40 year old male as a known case of AlP who had different presenting symptoms in each admission to our emergency department. Acute attacks of AlP are often precipated by drugs like barbiturates, sulfonamides, diphenylhydantom and many other drugs as well as fasting, acute infections and over indulgence in alcohol. In this case, we think that excessive alcohol consumption precipitated the acute AlP attacks