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Washington University Experience | VASCULAR | Infarct - Spinal Cord | 9A0 Case 9 History
Case 9 History ---- The patient was a 73 year old man admitted with a one day history of vague back pain, which eventually migrated into his abdomen and had become more acute in the two hours prior to admission. There was a large pulsatile mass, just left of the midline. X-ray showed calcifications in the wall of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Surgery demonstrated a leak of an aneurysm which was replaced with a Dacron graft. The surgery required 3600 cc of D5 Ringers fluids and 11 units of whole blood. After surgery distal pulses were intact and blood pressure was ~120. On the third postoperative day he had a flaccid paraplegia with a sensory deficit to the T10 level bilaterally. Thirteen days postoperative the patient had a cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated. ---- Autopsy showed massive pulmonary embolism.
