[Fatal air embolism during open eye surgery].

Gas embolism is well known for a specific subset of surgical interventions. Prevention and early detection are the main objectives of the anesthetic and surgical team. However, it may exceptionally occur during eye surgery with dramatic outcomes. We report the case of a 51-year-old man, ASA physical status 1, who presented a cardiac arrest during an open eye surgery for the extraction of a foreign body with intraocular air injection. Multiple organ failure has not been improved by hyperbaric oxygen therapy and the outcome was fatal.