[Air embolism in a labor with uterine rupture].

Owing to the asphyxia of the child weighing 4460 g, the delivery of a 33-year-old secundipara was completed by vacuum extraction. In the course of delivery the patient was bleeding very little. Following the delivery she complained of the numbness of the left hand and headache, she was pale, restless, and all in a cold sweat. The blood pressure was unmeasurable and the peripheral pulse could not be felt. Reanimation started at once. After a short improvement the patient's condition was getting worse. For suspected intra-abdominal hemorrhage, abdominal hysterectomy was applied. The operation revealed the incomplete rupture of the uterus. The patient died in the course of the operation. Venous air embolism was diagnosed only during obduction and was most probably the consequence of air aspiration through the split uterine veins.