Doctors have transfused five litres of beer into a man’s stomach to prevent him from dying of alcohol poisoning.

The life-saving procedure took place at a hospital in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri when medics administered 15 cans of beer to 48-year-old Nguyen Van Nhat.

In the video above, 100-year-old woman has first beer

Nhat was taken to the hospital with severe alcohol poisoning.

Dr Le Van Lam, head of the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, told local media the level of methanol in Nhat’s blood was 1,119 times higher than the appropriate limit.

How to treat the alcohol poisoning?

Hair of the dog

To the lay person, what doctors ended up doing sounds a little like giving the hair of the dog - on a huge scale.

But to save his life, physicians immediately transfused three cans of beer - to slow down the liver’s processing of methanol.

According to Dr Lam, one can of beer was then given to Nhat every hour and, after 15 cans were administered, the patient was completely conscious.

That’s five litres of beer, essentially given intravenously.

VIETNAM: Medics have perfused five litres of beer into a man's stomach to prevent him from dying of alcohol poisoning. Credit: AsiaWire / AsiaWire

The doctor explained that a person’s stomach and intestines continue to release alcohol into the bloodstream even if they are unconscious or have stopped drinking, and for a period alcohol levels in the body continue to rise.

Dr Lam said alcohol comes in two variants, methanol and ethanol, and the human liver breaks down ethanol first as a priority.

More on 7NEW.com.au

The man became unconscious when the methanol in his system oxidised to formaldehyde which in turn produced formic acid, according to reports.

To prevent oxidising formaldehyde to formic acid, giving beer to the methanol-poisoned patient gave medics enough time to perform dialysis.

Nhat was released from the hospital after three weeks.