Rarely food debris can be found as pulmonary and/or cerebral embolic material.
Mechanism: communication between digestive tract and circulation, with continued blood circulation
Diagnosis: histologic evidence of food debris (skeletal muscle, vegetable fibers, etc) within a blood vessel
Causes of food embolism:
(1) high-energy blunt trauma
(2) esophageal-atrial fistula (ulcer-related, other)
Differential diagnosis:
(1) effect of artificial resuscitation
