Acute respiratory failure associated with polymethyl methacrylate pulmonary emboli after percutaneous vertebroplasty.

We report a case of symptomatic polymethyl methacrylate pulmonary emboli after percutaneous vertebroplasty to alert clinicians to this potential cause of pulmonary emboli. A 77-year-old woman developed acute respiratory failure after multilevel percutaneous vertebroplasty. She received mechanical ventilatory support and anticoagulation with low-molecular-weight heparin and warfarin.