OVERVIEW
This page is dedicated to organizing various examples of standardized exam questions whose answer is amniotic fluid embolism. While this may seem a odd practice, it is useful to see multiple examples of how amniotic fluid embolism will be characterized on standardized exams (namely the boards and the shelf exams). This page is not meant to be used as a tradition question bank (as all of the answers will be the same), however seeing the classic “test” characterization for a disease is quite valuable.
QUESTION EXAMPLES
Question # 1
A 42 year old patient, G7P6 has a brief tonic-conic seizure in the delivery room. She is at 39 weeks gestation. She has become disoriented, lightheaded, short of breath, and cyanotic about 20 minutes after a spontaneous vaginal delivery of a healthy child, and the placenta. Her pregnancy course and delivery were both uncomplicated, and she has no notable past medical history. Her blood pressure is 75/40 mm Hg, push is 115/min, and her respirations are 28/min. Oxygen saturation is 80% with a facemark and supplemental oxygen. She becomes unconscious and is no longer seizing. The medical team notices a generalize purpuric rash and bleeding from the patients IV site. What is the likely diagnosis in this patient?
Question # 2
A 37 year old woman, G2P1, is at 39 weeks gestation when she has the spontaneous onset of labor. She has chronic hypertension. After 4 hours of regular contractions, and a 10 min second stage of labor, she spontaneously delivers a 8 lb child under epidural anesthesia. About 5 minutes after delivery of the placenta, she develops shortness of breath, cyanosis, and severe hypotension. Soon thereafter, the patient develops bleeding from her vagina and venipuncture sites. What is the most likely diagnosis?
Question # 3
A 33 year old woman G1P0 is at 40 weeks gestation when she has a protracted labor course. A cesarean delivery is performed under epidural aknastehisa. Immediately after delivery the patient develops chest pain, and also experiences difficulty breathing. She becomes hypotensive, bradycardia, hypoxic and eventually becomes unresponsive. She undergoes emergency incubation. The surgical incision begins to bleed heavily and the patient goes into cardiorespiratory arrest. She is declared to be dead after 30 minutes of attempted resuscitation. What is the most likely diagnosis?
Page Updated: 10.05.2016