Fatal hemorrhage following sacroiliac joint fusion surgery: A case report.

Threaded pins and wires are commonly used in orthopedic practice and their migration intra- or post-operatively may be responsible for potentially serious complications. Vascular and visceral injury from intra-pelvic pin or guide-wire migration during or following hip surgery has been reported frequently in the literature and may result in progression through soft tissues with subsequent perforation of organs and vessels. In this report, we describe an autopsy case involving a 40-year old man suffering from chronic low back pain due to sacroiliac joint disruption. The patient underwent minimally invasive sacroiliac joint arthrodesis. Some intra-operative bleeding was noticed when a drill was retrieved, though the patient died postoperatively. Postmortem investigations allowed the source of bleeding to be identified (a perforation of a branch of the right internal iliac artery) and a potentially toxic tramadol concentration in peripheral blood to be measured.

Postmortem findings in bone cement implantation syndrome-related deaths.

Several mechanisms have been postulated as potentially involved in life-threatening complications during cemented surgery. In this study, we evaluated the role of anaphylaxis and pulmonary fat embolism in the pathophysiology of bone cement implantation syndrome in a series of fatal cases that underwent medicolegal investigations. Postmortem findings in these cases were compared with those obtained from individuals who died after other injuries and/or interventions and in which activated mast cells and pulmonary fat embolism were involved in the pathogenesis of death. Fifty subjects were selected including 6 individuals who had undergone cemented total hip arthroplasty and died intraoperatively, 32 subjects who died shortly after being involved in traffic accidents, 8 individuals who died shortly after the injection of contrast material, and 4 subjects who had undergone orthopedic surgery and died postoperatively. Massive pulmonary fat embolism was determined to be the cause of death in all the 6 subjects who died intraoperatively as well as the main cause of death in traffic-road victims with rapid respiratory function deterioration. Mast cell activation was identified exclusively in the group of subjects who died shortly after contrast material administration. Massive pulmonary fat embolism appears to be the most important factor responsible for severe cardiorespiratory function deterioration during cemented arthroplasty. Cardiac comorbidities can also significantly influence the severity of intraoperative complications, thus corroborating the hypothesis of a multifactorial model in the pathogenesis of bone cement implantation syndrome.