Fatal Cerebral Emboli in the Absence of a Cardiac Arterial-Venous Shunt: Case Report

Cerebral embolism in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty has an incidence rate of 0.5%. In those cases where cerebral emboli were confirmed, a venous-to-arterial circulation shunt, most commonly a patent foramen ovale, was identified. We report a case of severe cerebral fat emboli during cementless total hip arthroplasty in the absence of an intracardiac defect.