A 66-year-old woman receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis developed acute respiratory distress 12 hours after a fall. Blood gas analysis revealed hypoxia (PaO2 67.7 torr) and metabolic acidosis with an increased anion gap, consistent with lactic acidosis (lactate, 86.5 mg/dL; normal range, 4.0-16.0). Magnetic resonance imaging showed a lumbar vertebral body fracture. On the fourth...

       We are presenting a case illustrating atrial fibrillation (AF) following the use of methylprednisolone in a patient with pelvic and femur fracture. A 48- year- old man with no significant past medical history, was admitted to the emergency department after injury in a car accident. He suffered a multiple bone fracture with chief complaints of pain and shortness of breath. He was transfer...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the available evidence regarding the effect that corticosteroids have on the prevention of fat embolism syndrome after long bone fracture of the lower limbs or pelvic fracture. METHODS In March of 2007, we performed a search of various electronic databases, including Medline, the Excerpta Medica database, the Cochrane Library, the Latin American and Caribbean Health Scien...

A 19-year-old woman who sustained multiple trauma but no head injury developed fulminant fat embolism syndrome (FES). Her neurological deterioration was associated with cerebral oedema and the concomitant Purtscher's type retinopathy. We suggest that the pathogenesis of the retinopathy and of the cerebral oedema are the same and that Purtscher's retinopathy and retinopathy of the FES are indist...

Background Gluteal fat grafting is among the fastest growing aesthetic procedures in the United States and around the world. Given numerous anecdotal and published reports of fatal and nonfatal pulmonary fat embolism resulting from this procedure, the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation (ASERF) formed a Task Force to study this complication. Objectives To determine the inciden...

Fat embolism syndrome is a condition of acute respiratory distress following long-bone trauma. This condition may involve not only the lungs but also a number of other body systems. The pathophysiology is not as yet clearly understood, however, intravasation of fat from long-bone fractures may play a role. Early recognition of the severity of injury both on clinical and biochemical grounds and ...