BMJ case reports
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Case Reports
Systemic arterial air embolism: positive pressure ventilation can be fatal in a patient with blunt trauma.
Systemic air embolism is a potentially fatal condition. Although venous embolism is commonly reported after deep sea diving or neurosurgical procedures, arterial embolism is rare. It usually occurs because of lung trauma after biopsy or lung resection but can rarely affect patients of blunt or penetrating trauma to chest managed on positive pressure ventilation. ⋯ Postmortem CT scan revealed huge amounts of air in left side of the heart, ascending aorta, arch of aorta, bilateral internal carotids and all right-sided intracranial arteries. In emergency departments of non-specialised centres, such complications are universally fatal. Thus, extreme caution needs to be exercised while managing patients of blunt trauma on mechanical ventilation even if the chest and abdominal examinations are normal.
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We report a case of serious lung injury from beanbag bullet. A 46-year-old gentleman, shot with beanbag bullets was brought to the emergency department. Upon arrival he was in obvious respiratory distress and complained of severe pain in the right chest. ⋯ The bullet and skin fragments overlying the lung and along the bullet track were extracted. The pleural cavity was washed with normal saline and haemostasis was confirmed. The patient had an uneventful postoperative recovery.
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Case Reports
Value of an automatic external defibrillator printout as a diagnostic tool after successful AED use on a child.
A 6-year-old girl without any medical history experienced a drowning incident for a duration of 2 min, according to witnesses. This was followed by cardiopulmonary resuscitation, during which the automatic external defibrillator (AED) detected a shockable rhythm and subsequently delivered a single electroshock. ⋯ This case report confirms the assumption that the AED can adequately perform rhythm analysis on children and convert VF into sinus rhythm. Moreover, the AED printout can provide information about the rhythm that is necessary for the diagnosis of an underlying cardiac disease.
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A 62-year-old woman with low back pain was eventually diagnosed with vertebral osteomyelitis after multiple visits to emergency, primary and specialty care. The absence of traditional 'red flags' from her history and examination serves as an important reminder that their absence does not necessarily reflect benign pathology.
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A 29-year-old patient attended our institution for recurrent strokes related to a giant partially thrombosed M1 aneurysm. Superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) bypass and subsequent occlusion of both the aneurysm and the dysplastic M1 segment were planned. However, owing to the shortness of the non-dysplastic segment of M1 and the risk of occlusion of the lenticulostriate arteries, the use of a double-lumen balloon was considered for coiling and subsequent injection of Onyx. ⋯ Endovascular occlusion of both the aneurysm and the parent artery was subsequently performed by means of coils and Onyx-34 that was injected via the Ascent balloon under balloon inflation. No complications were recorded and no stroke was observed on control MRI. The injection of Onyx-34 through a double-lumen balloon under balloon inflation is a quick and safe technique for precise occlusion of a parent artery.