Multiple fatal pulmonary embolism during polymethyl-methacrylate vertebroplasty with successful percutaneous retrieval of a large cement fragment.

A 74-year-old man with high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and diabetes, who had been evaluated in our unit 13 months earlier for atrial fibrillation, underwent cardioversion with no apparent structural heart disease. One month later he was diagnosed with T4N3M0-stage adenocarcinoma of the lung and received chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In February 2011, the patient was hospitalized for intense lumbar pain of 10 days’ duration. Computerized tomography identified a compression fracture of the second lumbar vertebra (L2) due to metastasis.