Air embolism [1,2] is a rare complication that occurs following awide range of diagnostic and therapeutic invasive procedures. Only six cases of air embolism following colonoscopy have been reported and all occurred in patients with underlying colonic pathology. We present a case of an 83-year-old woman who underwent colonoscopy for evaluation of rectal bleeding. Colonoscopy was incomplete due ...

Major adverse cardiac events in patients during liver transplantation are due to preexisting cardiopulmonary comorbidities and the impact of surgery on hemodynamics. Graft reperfusion of the transplanted liver is the most hemodynamically critical phase and can be associated with air embolism and the release of acidotic, cold, hyperkalemic effluent containing vaso-constrictive chemical mediators...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to investigate the prevalence and prognostic significance of right heart thrombi (RHTh) in pulmonary embolism. BACKGROUND Most reports about patients with RHTh are small case series. We analyzed data referring to RHTh among 2,454 consecutive pulmonary embolism patients enrolled in the International Cooperative Pulmonary Embolism Registry. METHODS Of the 2,...

Venous air embolism is the entrapment of air into the venous system producing signs and symptoms due to obstruction of pulmonary arterial blood flow. We present a healthy, 27-year-old, full-term parturient admitted for postdate induction of labor. Cesarean delivery was required following fetal distress. During delivery, the mother became bradycardic and required advanced cardiac life support fo...

A 24-year-old previously healthy woman was involved in a bus accident in Nepal and sustained major blunt abdominal trauma with complete transection of the pancreatic neck. After 16 days of emergency stabilization in a local hospital, she was transferred to our center. Even though she appeared asymptomatic, abdominal imaging confirmed disconnected pancreatic duct syndrome with a 10-cm fluid coll...

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) often decreases pulmonary diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DL,CO), but data on the mechanisms involved are inconsistent. We wanted to investigate whether reduction in diffusing capacity of alveolo-capillary membrane (DM) and pulmonary capillary blood volume (Vc) is associated with the extent of PE or the presence and severity of right ventricular dysfunction...

BACKGROUND Little data exist regarding the functional capacity of patients following acute pulmonary embolism. We sought to characterize the natural history of symptom burden, right ventricular (RV) structure and function, and exercise capacity among survivors of massive and submassive pulmonary embolism. METHODS AND RESULTS Survivors of submassive or massive pulmonary embolism (n=20, age 57±...

BACKGROUND A simple prognostic model could help identify patients with pulmonary embolism who are at low risk of death and are candidates for outpatient treatment. METHODS We randomly allocated 15,531 retrospectively identified inpatients who had a discharge diagnosis of pulmonary embolism from 186 Pennsylvania hospitals to derivation (67%) and internal validation (33%) samples. We derived ou...

References 1 Frat J-P, Thille AW, Mercat A, Girault C, Ragot S, Perbet S, et al. High-flow oxygen through nasal cannula in acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. N Engl J Med 2015; 372:2185–2196. 2 Messika J, Ben Ahmed K, Gaudry S, Miguel-Montanes R, Rafat C, Sztrymf B, et al. Use of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy in subjects with ARDS: a 1-year observational study. Respir Care 2015; 60:1...