A Case of Green Urine
A 62 year old man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease presented in the emergency room with hypercapnic respiratory failure. He was immediately intubated and was given propofol infusion which is a general anesthetic. Strangely, five days later, his urine which was being collected in a catheter bag turned green. It was found that the propofol which was being administered was responsible for this unusual discoloration. The exact mechanism as to why this discoloration occurs upon taking propofol is not clear. One of the reasons is the breakdown of the metabolites of propofol in the kidneys instead of the liver. There are certain infections and other medications' adverse effects too in which the urine turns a similar shade of green. However, the administration of propofol being the culprit in this situation, had to be stopped in order to help the urine turn back to its normal color. The man had to to stay in the hospital for 2 more weeks before he could be moved to a rehabilitation facility. Source: https://www.livescience.com/green-urine-drug-side-effect.html
This is actually caused by blue pigment mixing with the natural yellow color of urine to turn green or bluish green . It is due to the phenol group in the chemical structure of the drug . Some drugs may cause urine to turn green are Promethazine , Cimetidine , Metoclorpramide, Amitriptaline, Indomethacine , PROPOFOL ( as in this case ) and of course methylene blue.
Why stop the medication? Its like Rifampin, just a dye, there's no kidney damage
