Brain death due to fat embolism — could moderate hypercapnia and prone position be blamed for the tonsillar herniation?

Abstract

Fat embolism to the systemic circulation in polytrauma patients is very common. The fat embolism syndrome (FES), however, is a rare condition. We describe a case of traumatic femur fracture with FES that was presented as acute tonsillar herniation (coning) and brain death postoperatively. We believe that in this case the prone position and moderate hypercapnia contributed to the acute coning.

Key words::

• Fat embolism
• hypercapnia
• prone position
• trauma

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.