Bedside echocardiography for diagnosis of Intracardiac cement embolism
after percutaneous vertebroplasty: A case report
Abstract
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to report a case diagnosed by
bedside echocardiography in which bone cement infiltrated into the
paravertebral vein system after percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) and
caused intracardiac cement embolism (ICE). A 79-year-old female patient
had suddenly become unconscious 14 hours after PVP. Emergency bedside
echocardiogram showed that the patient had a strong echo in the right
heart with a small amount of pericardial effusion, suspected of causing
cardiogenic shock. Computed tomography (CT) showed high density in the
distal branches of both pulmonary arteries and a high density in the
right heart.Combined with the history of surgery, the clinician
considers the foreign body as bone cement and the diagnosis was ICE. The
bone cement in the heart was removed under emergency cardiopulmonary
bypass. The patient recovered and was discharged smoothly.