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Updated: Apr 24, 2026

The Transition to an Anterior-Based Muscle Sparing Approach Improves Early Postoperative Function but is Associated with a Learning Curve
Published on: September 7, 2022
Paradoxical cerebral fat embolism in revision hip surgery
Nicolás S Piuzzi1, Gerardo Zanotti1, Fernando M Comba1
1Hip Surgery Unit "Sir John Charnley", Institute of Orthopaedics "Carlos E. Ottolenghi", Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires, Peron 4190, 1181 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Abstract:
The incidence of clinical fat embolism syndrome (FES) is low (<1%) whilst fat embolism (FE) of marrow fat appears to occur more often (Mellor and Soni (2001)). Paradoxical brain FE may occur in patients undergoing hip orthopedic surgery who have an undocumented patent foramen ovale (PFO). We report a case of an eighty-year-old male patient, who underwent a scheduled revision hip surgery suffering a paradoxical cerebral FE.

