Abstract
Systemic air embolism is a rare but potentially fatal complication of percutaneous
transthoracic biopsy. Herein, we report two cases of nonfatal air embolism that occurred
during a computed tomography (CT)-guided lung biopsy. It can be concluded that postprocedure
CT scans of the aorto-cardiac region and attention focused on systemic air on CT scan
images during biopsy procedures can be helpful for early recognition of the complication,
a step that is important for successful treatment.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 22, 2009
Accepted:
April 9,
2009
Received:
March 15,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.