A 50-year-old woman ASA 2 underwent carbon dioxide hysteroscopy under general anaesthesia. Monitoring showed a sudden and rapid fall in end-tidal carbon dioxide followed by oxygen desaturation. She became pulseless and cyanosed.
Resuscitation with oxygen, intravenous adrenaline and head-down tilt restored her to haemodynamic stability. Hyperbaric therapy was also administered as air embolism could not be excluded.
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