I recently read the review article entitled “Pulmonary Fat Embolism Following Liposuction and Fat Grafting: A Review of Published Cases” by Kao et al. [], which was published in The Healthcare (Basel) Journal (2023;11(10)). I wish to make some constructive comments and corrections regarding certain aspects of the article.
In Table 1, which provides an overview of the reviewed studies and patients’ characteristics, a few discrepancies need to be addressed. The authors mentioned the reports of Foula et al. [] and Foula et al. [] twice in the table, once for a 2019 study from Saudi Arabia and once for a 2022 study from Egypt. It should be noted that the 2019 citation is a poster presentation derived from the same study, and it represents the same patient. Therefore, combining these two citations into a single entry would be more accurate (Table 1 revised).
Table 1.
(revised). Reviewed studies and patients’ characteristics.
Additionally, the study of Coronado-Malagón M et al. [] should not be included in this review based on the inclusion criteria. The patient in this case report did not undergo liposuction; only a soft tissue filler was injected. Therefore, this case report is not eligible for inclusion in a review focused on pulmonary fat embolism following liposuction and fat grafting (Table 1 revised).
Regarding the “Surgery” section of Table 1, the authors stated that the procedures in the studies of Laub and Laub [], Foula et al. [,], Erba et al. [], Saon et al. [], Kadar et al. [] and Pham et al. [] involved “liposuction and fat grafting”. These studies did not include “fat grafting”. For example, the study by Foula et al. [,] describes a case wherein cardiac arrest occurred before lipofilling, and the other studies involved procedures that did not include fat grafting. The surgery section is revised and shown in the revised Table 1.
In the “Mortality” section, all patients are marked as “Alive”, which is inaccurate. The revised form of the mortality section of Table 1 is shown in the revised Table 1.
Considering these corrections, the total number of studies in the article changed to 36, and the number of patients to 38. Liposuction was performed in all patients, and fat grafting was performed in 13/38 (34.3%) of patients. Regarding mortality rate, the outcomes of two patients were not described in the two studies [,] and 12 patients died. Therefore, the corrected mortality rate is 12/36 (33.3%).
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
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