Affiliation:
1. 1st Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2. Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Regional Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology “Prof. Dr. Octavian Fodor”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
3. Orthopedic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Compartment, Emergency County Hospital Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
Fat embolism syndrome (FES) is a multiple organ disorder that can appear after pelvic and long bone fractures. The most common clinical finding is hypoxia, accompanied by diffuse petechiae, alveolar infiltrates, altered mental status, fever, polypnea, and tachycardia. We present a mild FES case on a 32-year-old man with no medical history admitted for an orthopedic procedure, following both tibia and fibulae fractures. Thirty hours postoperatively, he developed respiratory failure with altered mental status and needed admission in the intensive care unit. The chest radiography and later chest tomography raised the suspicion of a COVID-19 disease, even if our first suspicion was FES. After being carefully investigated in a dedicated COVID-19 ward and three negative RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 tests, he returned to continue supportive treatment in the orthopedic intensive care ward. His evolution was favorable with discharge at ten days, without sequelae. In the context of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, differential diagnosis has become an increasingly challenging process. Added to the variety of preexisting respiratory diseases and disorders, the COVID-19 infection, with its symptomatology so similar to multiple other pulmonary diseases, must not cloud our clinical judgement.
Subject
Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献