Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 6, 2021; 9(13): 3120-3129
Published online May 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i13.3120
Intracardiac, pulmonary cement embolism in a 67-year-old female after cement-augmented pedicle screw instrumentation: A case report and review of literature
Tong-Zhou Liang, Hai-Peng Zhu, Bo Gao, Yan Peng, Wen-Jie Gao
Tong-Zhou Liang, Bo Gao, Yan Peng, Wen-Jie Gao, Department of Orthopedics, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510289, Guangdong Province, China
Hai-Peng Zhu, Department of Orthopedics, Guangdong Women and Children Hospital, Guangzhou 511400, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Liang TZ and Zhu HP contributed equally to the work; Liang TZ, Zhu HP, and Gao B provided patient care, monitored the patient’s vital signs, provided treatment, and abstracted laboratory and clinical data; Gao WJ and Zhu HP performed a regular follow-up of the patient; Peng Y, Gao WJ, and Liang TZ contributed to the writing of the manuscript; All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript and issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, No. 20ykpy94.
Informed consent statement: The patient and her families provided informed written consent form for reporting the case.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wen-Jie Gao, MD, PhD, Attending Doctor, Department of Orthopedics, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 33 Yingfeng Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510289, Guangdong Province, China. gaowj7@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Received: November 24, 2020
Peer-review started: November 24, 2020
First decision: January 24, 2021
Revised: February 4, 2021
Accepted: March 3, 2021
Article in press: March 3, 2021
Published online: May 6, 2021
Processing time: 143 Days and 9.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Intracardiac and pulmonary cement embolism event after cement-augmented pedicle screw instrumentation is an extremely rare complication in orthopedics surgery. In our case, the patient developed no symptoms except for rapid decrease in oxygen saturation to 70%. The case presents evidence for treating cement embolism cases without severe life-threatening complications, which include close monitoring, oxygen inhalation, anti-coagulation, and antibiotic therapy. This case improves our understanding of bone cement embolism and informs optimization of the duration and type of anticoagulant drugs to be used when the complication occurs.