Radiology corner. Venous fragment embolism to the pulmonary artery.

摘要

A 24 year-old helicopter navigator was flying in Iraq when an AK-47 round penetrated the helicopter nose bubble and injured his left leg. Still airborne, he was rushed to a nearby combat support hospital where he underwent immediate surgical exploration and irrigation of his wounds. Five hours after injury he became hypoxic and had increasing oxygen requirements. Imaging studies revealed a rare phenomenon: one of the . fragments initially seen on x-ray in the popliteal fossa was now absent, and a previously clear chest radiograph showed what appeared to be the same missing fragment resting in the right lower pulmonary lobe region (see Figure 1A & B).