Fatal Pulmonary Thromboembolism Caused by Popliteal Vein Aneurysm

Gyuheon Choi; Hongil Ha; Sohyung Park

doi:10.7580/kjlm.2018.42.3.102

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Choi, Ha, and Park: Fatal Pulmonary Thromboembolism Caused by Popliteal Vein Aneurysm

Case Report

Korean J Leg Med 2018;42(3):102-104.

Published online: 8 January 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2018.42.3.102

Fatal Pulmonary Thromboembolism Caused by Popliteal Vein Aneurysm

Gyuheon Choi¹, Hongil Ha², Sohyung Park²

¹Departments of Pathology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea

²Medical Examiner's Office, National Forensic Service, Wonju, Korea

Correspondence to Sohyung Park Medical Examiner's Office, National Forensic Service, 139 Jiyang-ro Yangcheon-gu, Seoul 08036, Korea Tel: +82-2-2600-4614 Fax: +82-2-2600-4828 E-mail: zzeva@korea.kr

Revised 12 August 201820 August 2018 Accepted 21 August 2018

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Popliteal venous aneurysms can be a cause of fatal pulmonary thromboembolism. We report a case of a 47-year-old woman who suddenly died of fatal pulmonary thromboembolism. Deep vein thrombosis was not observed, but a venous aneurysm with intraluminal thrombi formation was identified on the left popliteal vein. This case illustrates that venous aneurysms can be presented as fatal pulmonary thromboembolism, and that they should be considered as a rare cause of pulmonary thromboembolism.

Keywords: Aneurysm, Popliteal vein, Pulmonary embolism, Forensic pathology

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Fig. 1.

Extensive thromboemboli are observed in the both right and left pulmonary arteries.

Fig. 2.

Fusiform aneurysm with intraluminal thrombi formation (open) is observed in the left popliteal vein.

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