The clinical and pathologic correlation of fat embolism syndrome

The fat embolism syndrome is a well-defined clinical entity that can usually be recognized in patients who have long-bone fractures. Cerebral symptoms of restlessness, confusion, stupor, and coma correlate with the autopsy findings of fat in the brain, but the amount of fat or amount of petechial hemorrhage cannot be quantitated with the severity of the cerebral symptoms. There is a correlation between the clinical manifestations of dyspnea and tachypnea and the autopsy findings in the lungs, which are heavy from edema and alveolar hemorrhage; however, we cannot correlate the degree of pathologic change in the lung, including lung weights, with the severity of findings clinically.