Renal artery embolization after back massage in a patient with aortic occlusion
Three pages on PainSci cite Mikhail 1997: 1. Massage Therapy Side Effects 2. Does Massage Increase Circulation? 3. 6 tales of blood clots dangerously dislodged by massage
PainSci commentary on Mikhail 1997: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
A case report: “massage” in the form of walking on the back (which is not as rare or necessarily as reckless as it sounds) dislodged a clot in the aorta at the site of a graft (aortobifemoral bypass graft). This is an unusual case (but not because of the massage), which is why they wrote it up: “It is controversial whether aortic occlusion can lead to retrograde thrombosis of the renal arteries.“ But it appeared to in this case, and that’s what the report is focused on. But the graft “occluded over a year before admission but the loin symptoms only appeared after the massage. We presume that in this case in the presence of normal renal arteries the physical trauma led to dislodgement of thrombus…”
related content
- “Pulmonary embolus originating below knee,” Warren, Lancet, 1978.
- “Massive pulmonary emboli after legs massage,” Jabr, Am J Phys Med Rehabil, 2007.
- “Massaging the outcome: an unusual presentation of pulmonary embolism,” Lim et al, BMJ Case Rep, 2009.
- “Leg massage by mother resulting in fatal pulmonary thromboembolism,” Behera et al, Med Leg J, 2018.
- “Leg massage during pregnancy with unrecognized deep vein thrombosis could be life threatening: a case report,” Sutham et al, BMC Pregnancy Childbirth, 2020.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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