An Incidental Finding of Pulmonary Cement Embolism Four Weeks After Vertebroplasty in a 50-Year-Old Man with Multiple Myeloma.

BACKGROUND Vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive radiological procedure that involves injection of cement to stabilize the fractured vertebra. It has also been increasingly used to relieve pain in patients with bone-incorporated malignancies. The most frequently encountered complication of this procedure is inadvertent cement leakage, which has the potential to embolize. This report presents an incidental finding of cement embolism during fluoroscopy for a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line 4 weeks after vertebroplasty in a 50-year-old man with multiple myeloma. CASE REPORT Our report details the case of a 50-year-old man who presented for progressive sciatic nerve pain and was found on imaging to have an L3 fracture, spinal stenosis, lumbar spinal spondylosis, and diffusely decreased bone density, eventually diagnosed with multiple myeloma. For symptomatic relief and vertebrae stabilization, he underwent a CT-guided fluoroscopic vertebroplasty procedure. Four weeks later, during fluoroscopy for a PICC, he was incidentally found to have radiopaque opacities within the pulmonary arteries. He was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism due to transvertebral cement leakage from his vertebroplasty. Given the central nature of his embolism, he was treated with anticoagulation and closely monitored. Throughout the treatment period, he remained asymptomatic with normal vital signs and NT-brain natriuretic peptide. CONCLUSIONS This report highlights the association between vertebroplasty and pulmonary cement embolism (PCE), the potential for late detection upon chest imaging even weeks after vertebroplasty, and suggests that some patients with PCE may need therapeutic anticoagulation.