Carbon dioxide embolism during endoscopic vein harvesting
Muhammed Tamim 1*,
Maher Omrani 1,
Adel Tash 1,
Ahmed El Watidy 1
1 Prince Sultan Cardiac Center, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mttamim{at}yahoo.com.
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Abstract |
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Endoscopic vein harvesting (EVH) is becoming common for the patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. Using carbon dioxide insufflations during the vein harvest can produce rare but catastrophic CO2 embolism. We report a case of massive right atrial CO2 embolism due to femoral vein injury which occurred during performance of routine EVH procedure. Keywords: CO2 embolism; Endoscopic vein harvest