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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · The Arab Journal of Interventional Radiology 2017; 01(01): 33-36
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1728967
Case Report

Treatment of Massive Systemic Air Embolism During Lung Biopsy

Abbas Chamsuddin
Department of Radiology, Division of Interventional Radiology, Balamand University, Beirut, Lebanon
Department of Radiology, Division of Interventional Radiology, Piedmont Newton Medical Center, Covington, GA, USA
,
Raja Ashou
Department of Radiology, Balamand University, Beirut, Lebanon
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Abstract

Percutaneous needle biopsy of lung lesions is commonly used and is usually regarded as a safe procedure with limited morbidity and extremely rare mortality. Most frequent complications are pneumothoax, pulmonary bleeding and hemoptysis. Other rare complications include systemic air embolus, tumor implantation and empyema. Systemic air emboli are extremely rare with a published incidence of 0.02' from a lung biopsy survey in the United Kingdom to 0.07' in the literature, but are serious and can be fatal. We present a case of massive air embolism occurring during lung biopsy and describe the technique used for immediate treatment.

Keywords:

Air-embolism - biopsy - hyperbaric oxygen - pneumothorax


Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
10. April 2021

© 2017. The Arab Journal of Interventional Radiology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

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