Fat Emboli Entrapped in the Tricuspid Valve Chordae Following Autologous Fat Grafting: An Echocardiographic-Pathological Correlation
Thomas Langelet, Christophe Beauloye, Diego Orbegozo Cortes, Olivier Gach, Anja Kerschen, Alexander Muacevic, John R Adler · 2026
Read Fat Emboli Entrapped in the Tricuspid Valve Chordae Following Autologous Fat Grafting: An Echocardiographic-Pathological Correlation by Thomas Langelet, Christophe Beauloye, Diego Orbegozo Cortes, Olivier Gach, Anja Kerschen, Alexander Muacevic, John R Adler (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13633071.txt.
Description
Thomas Langelet and six colleagues report a fatal complication of cosmetic fat transfer surgery. A forty-year-old woman suffered cardiac arrest during breast fat grafting, where fat taken by liposuction is injected elsewhere. Revived but unstable, she showed signs of an overloaded right heart and a mass inside it on ultrasound imaging. Doctors placed her on a heart-lung support machine at once.
Her course turned grim. A whole-body clotting disorder consumed her blood's clotting factors, demanding huge transfusion volumes within a day. Lung failure, repeated clotting problems with a stroke, and failing heart function followed, and care was eventually withdrawn. Autopsy found fat blocking her lung vessels and fat caught in the cords of a heart valve, matching the mass seen on imaging. The authors say spotting such trapped fat early may signal a heavy embolic load and a poor outlook.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Thomas Langelet, Christophe Beauloye, Diego Orbegozo Cortes, Olivier Gach, Anja Kerschen, Alexander Muacevic, John R Adler |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 13 KB |
| LICENSE | This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0., which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provide |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |