Doctors remove four inches piece of cement from heart: NEJM case report
Written By : Dr Kartikeya Kohli
Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
Published On 2021-10-09 04:45 GMT | Update On 2021-10-19 04:54 GMT
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A 4-inch piece of cement was removed from heart of a man by doctors, which had leaked into his body from a spinal surgery. Dr Gabe Weininger, and Dr John A. Elefteriades, at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT have reported the instant case of Intracardiac Cement embolism.
The case has been published in the New England journal of Medicine.
According to the history, a 56-year-old man with a recent vertebral compression fracture presented to the emergency department with a 2-day history of breathless and chest pain.
One week earlier, the patient had undergone an L5 kyphoplasty with polymethylmethacrylate medical cement. Five days later, he had sudden onset of pleuritic chest pain on the right side with radiation to the jaw and shoulder. At the current presentation, radiography and computed tomography of the chest revealed an intracardiac foreign body. The patient underwent emergency cardiothoracic surgery. During the procedure, a foreign body was found to be perforating the right atrium (Panel A, arrow), crossing the pericardium into the pleural space, and puncturing the right lung (Panel B). A sharp cement embolism measuring 10.1 cm in length and 0.2 cm in diameter was removed. Cement embolism is a described complication of kyphoplasty; the cement can leak into the venous system, harden, and embolize. After the embolus was removed, the patient's right atrium was repaired. He had no postoperative complications, and at 1 month after the procedure he had nearly recovered.
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