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Case Reports
. 2014 Mar;18(3):167-9.
doi: 10.4103/0972-5229.128707.

Cerebral fat embolism syndrome after long bone fracture due to gunshot injury

Latif Duran  1 , Servet Kayhan  2 , Celal Kati  1 , Hizir Ufuk Akdemir  1 , Kemal Balci  3 , Yucel Yavuz  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Cerebral fat embolism syndrome after long bone fracture due to gunshot injury

Latif Duran et al. Indian J Crit Care Med. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

Cerebral fat embolism syndrome is a lethal complication of long-bone fractures and clinically manifasted with respiratory distress, altered mental status, and petechial rash. We presented a 20-year-old male admitted with gun-shot wounds to his left leg. Twenty-four hours after the event, he had generalized tonic clonic seizures, decorticate posture and a Glascow Coma Scale of seven with localization of painful stimuli. Subsequent magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed a star-field pattern defining multiple lesions of restricted diffusion. On a 4-week follow-up, he had returned to normal neurological function. Despite the severity of the neurological condition upon initial presentation, the case cerebral fat embolism illustrates that, cerebral dysfunction associated with cerebral fat embolism illustrates reversible.

Keywords: Cerebral fat embolism; diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging; starfield pattern.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1a
Figure 1a
Diffusion weighted cranial magnetic resonance image reveals starfield pattern; bilaterally localised multiple hyperintense punctate lesions in centrum semiovale regions (arrows). The slice thickness of the images was 5 mm, Echoplanar imaging was used and the b value of the slices was 500
Figure 2a
Figure 2a
Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance image reveals starfield pattern; multiple milimetric sized hyperintense lesions (arrows) due to restricted diffusion areas in periventricular regions. Echoplanar imagings were taken with slice thickness of 5 mm and b value of 1000
Figure 1b
Figure 1b
Diffusion coefficient map slice of the patient reveals the hypointense punctuate to lesions (arrows) in centrum semiovale region. The slice thickness of the images was 5 mm, Echoplanar imaging was used and the b value of the slices was 500
Figure 2b
Figure 2b
Diffusion coefficient map slices of the patient reveals the hypointense punctate lesions (arrows) in periventricular region. The slice thickness was 5 mm, Echoplanar imaging with b value of 500 was used
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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