Complete Neurologic Recovery of Cerebral Fat Embolism Syndrome in Sickle Cell Disease

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 14; no. 9
• Main Authors: Oyedeji, Oluwayomi, Anusim, Nwabundo, Alkhoujah, Mohammad, Dabak, Vrushali, Otrock, Zaher K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Palo Alto Cureus Inc 13-09-2022; Cureus
• Subjects: Anemia; Blood; Blood diseases; Blood platelets; Bone surgery; Case reports; Convulsions & seizures; Diagnostic tests; Emergency medical care; Hematology; Hematoma; Hemoglobin; Internal Medicine; Laboratories; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neurology; Pain; Patients; Pulmonary embolisms; Recovery (Medical); Sickle cell disease; Ventilators
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.29111

Sickle cell disease is one of the most common inherited hemoglobinopathies diagnosed in the United States. Patients often present with severe anemia, pain crises, infections, and vaso-occlusive phenomena. Complications of these disorders can lead to significant debilitating morbidity and mortality. Fat embolism syndrome (FES) is a rare and devastating complication of sickle cell disease. It usually presents with a rapidly deteriorating clinical course, and the prognosis is dismal. We report a case of FES in a 19-year-old African American male with a history of sickle cell disease who presented with tonic-clonic seizures and was found to have multi-organ failure. FES was diagnosed 20 days from a presentation based on blood cytopenias and magnetic resonance imaging findings that were obscured at the initial presentation. We describe in this report, the patient’s course from presentation until diagnosis and resolution. Our case is peculiar as the patient had a very good outcome without the need for red blood cell (RBC) exchange; instead, supportive treatment and simple RBC transfusions were enough to change the clinical course of this almost fatal syndrome.