Multiple cerebral air emboli during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy
- 1Department of Neurology, Slotervaart hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2Department of Gastroenterology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Correspondence to Dr Nyika Dalitso Kruyt, Department of Neurology, Slotervaart Hospital Amsterdam, Louwesweg 6, PO box 90440, Amsterdam 1066 BK, The Netherlands; ndkruyt{at}gmail.com
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Contributors GTK—wrote the first draft, constructed the imaging material and revised the draft. DB—revised the draft. HB—revised the draft. NDK—wrote the first draft, constructed the imaging material and revised the draft.
- Received 3 June 2012
- Revised 9 July 2012
- Accepted 10 July 2012
- Published Online First 7 August 2012
A 76-year-old woman, previously treated with curative chemo-radiation for a T3N1M0 squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus, underwent upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy with high air pressure to dilate a postradiation oesophageal stricture. The procedure was performed under conscious sedation with midazolam. Immediately after, she could not move her left arm and leg. On neurological examination she had right-sided conjugate eye- and head deviation with left-sided hemianopsia and left-sided hemiparalysis of arm and leg with ipsilateral hyperreflexia and extensor plantar reflex. A brain CT …
