A 50-year-old man experienced cardiac arrest. The patient underwent standard cardiopulmonary resuscitative measures for approximately 20 minutes before spontaneous circulation returned. He was diagnosed with variant angina, and subsequent imaging for evaluation of upper back pain revealed fractures of the fifth through eighth thoracic vertebrae. Multiple thoracic vertebral fractures are extremely rare. Here we report a case of multiple thoracic vertebral fractures as a complication of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Keywords: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, electric countershock, osteoporosis, spinal fractures, thoracic vertebrae