Cerebral fat embolism as a rare possible complication of traumatic pancreatitis

Neurological complications following an acute attack of pancreatitis have been described. They are mainly in the form of encephalopathy, retinopathy and rarely polyneuropathy. Cerebral infarction following an acute attack of pancreatitis is very rare.

We report the case of a 25 year old male, who developed multiple cerebral infarcts (both hemorrhagic and non-hemorrhagic) as a complication of acute pancreatitis.

This is probably the first case report where a cerebral fat embolism during the course of acute pancreatitis has been hypothesized as a cause of cerebral infarction leading to hemiplegia.