[Acute Massive Pulmonary Embolism Occurring During Orthopedic Surgery]

We present an emergent surgical case of massive pulmonary embolism (MPE) that happened during orthopedic surgery. A 38-year-old man, who had bone fractures with his lumbar vertebra and ankle, underwent the internal fixation of the tibial bone with tourniquet under general anesthesia in our hospital. During this surgery, the pulse oxymeter showed a drop of arterial oxygen saturation suddenly. Immediately we installed a transesophageal echo (TEE) probe in the patient, and detected enlargement of the right ventricle and right atrial thrombus. Half an hour later, the thrombus disappeared from the right atrium and the patient showed hemodynamic shock. We performed emergent embolectomy immediately under moderate hypothermic complete cardiopulmonary bypass. The postoperative course was uneventful, and one month later, his orthopedic surgery underwent completely. We conclude that TEE was a useful devise for the diagnosis of intraoperative MPE.