Cerebral Embolism Following Antrum Puncture

A worker in the nose department of a largely attended general hospital has not to wait long before he comes up against some unpleasant accident following such a simple procedure as antrum puncture, or an attempted puncture. Fortunately most of these accidents are trivialMishaps like the entry of the trocar into the opposite wall resulting in infiltration and emphysema of soft parts of the cheek and orbit are such as can usually be avoided through judicious care, and' tend to decrease as the experience of the operator increases. There are other accidents, however, that are beyond the operator's control; examples are cocaine poisoning, or the reflex irritation of vagus through the maxmary uivision 01 vn^ fifth cranial nerve. Under the same heading, but in ? more serious category, are grouped cases due to vagal shock or apoplexy resulting in death, and cases of air embolism which may or may not be fatal. Air embolism, first reported by Hajek (1926) in 1907, is one of the