title: Sudden death after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)--case report and literature review.
abstract: There are only a few cases found in literature regarding air embolism in endoscopic procedures, especially in connection to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). We are presenting a case of a 56-year-old female patient who suffered from non-Hodgkin lymphoma located in her right groin. She was also diagnosed with choledocholithiasis and underwent ERCP to remove the gallstones. Immediately after the procedure she went into sudden cardiac arrest and subsequently died, despite all of our efforts. We reviewed literature in order to identify possible causes of death because fatal outcome following an uneventful and successful procedure was not expected. It is important to bear in mind all possible complications of ERCP. Our focus during the literature search was on air embolism.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology (GH, DS); Department of Surgery, Division of Digestive Surgery (MZ); and Department of Anaesthesiology, Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia (MM).
authors.forename: Goran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hauser
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Milosevic
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zelić
authors.forename: Davor
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stimac
mesh_terms: D002760:Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003645:Death, Sudden; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged