Fatal Fat Embolism from Steroid-Induced Fatty Liver

Abstract

SINCE the early days of cortisone therapy, occasional lipemia and lactescence of serum have been observed in patients on adrenocortical steroid or ACTH therapy. In addition, there has been an occasional indication in the literature that marked fatty metamorphosis of the liver may occur in patients receiving large doses of these hormones.1 2 3 This phenomenon has not, to my knowledge, been well studied, and the hepatomegaly and fatty liver, when present, have been considered reversible and harmless. The present communication concerns the first report of a fatal case of fat embolism from a severely fatty liver in a young girl receiving . . .