Pulmonary Embolism after Arthroscopic Bankart and Rotator Cuff Repair

INTRODUCTION Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries in the lungs. Since PE almost always occurs in conjunction with deep vein thrombosis (DVT), these two conditions together refer as venous thromboembolism (VTE). PE after shoulder arthroscopy is unusual and rare (reported incidence rate: 0.01 0.06%)1-3, but potentially life threatening.4 All patients with PE have a case fatality rate of 7 11%.5 In the body of literature, there were less than 50 reported cases of DVT and PE after shoulder arthroscopy.1-3, 6-26 The majority involved patients with a significant risk factor or underlying predisposition toward VTE.23 This case report presents a patient with inflammatory bowel disease who developed a symptomatic PE involving the medial segment of the right middle lobe of lung after arthroscopic Bankart and rotator cuff repair following a traumatic shoulder dislocation.