CRJ Canadian Respiratory Journal 1198-2241 Pulsus Group Inc 743151 10.1155/2011/743151 Case Report Acute Respiratory Distress following Intravenous Injection of an Oil-Steroid Solution Russell Michael michael.russell@albertahealthservices.ca 1 Storck Aric 2 Ainslie Martha 3 1 Department of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program University of Calgary Foothills Medical Centre Canada ucalgary.ca 2 Department of Emergency Medicine Foothills Medical Centre Calgary Alberta Canada albertahealthservices.ca 3 Division of Respirology Department of Internal Medicine University of Manitoba Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg Manitoba Canada umanitoba.ca 2011 18 4 e59 e61 2011 Copyright © 2011 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. This open-access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits reuse, distribution and reproduction of the article, provided that the original work is properly cited and the reuse is restricted to noncommercial purposes.

A case of acute respiratory distress and hypoxemia following accidental intravenous injection of an oil-steroid solution in a body builder is presented. Chest roentography at the time of presentation showed diffuse bilateral opacities, and computed tomography revealed predominantly peripheral ground-glass opacifications. The patient’s symptoms gradually improved over 48 h and imaging of the chest was unremarkable one week later. The pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of this rare but potentially life-threatening complication of intravenous oil injection are discussed.

 Pulmonary oil embolism Steroid-oil injection