Embolism

An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel.[1] The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule (fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amniotic fluid embolism), or foreign material. An embolism can cause partial or total blockage of blood flow in the affected vessel.[2] Such a blockage (vascular occlusion) may affect a part of the body distant from the origin of the embolus. An embolism in which the embolus is a piece of thrombus is called a thromboembolism.

This article is about the vascular phenomenon. For other uses, see Embolism (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with ebullism or aneurysm.
Embolism
Micrograph of embolic material in the artery of a kidney. The kidney was surgically removed because of cancer. H&E stain.
SpecialtyVascular surgery

An embolism is usually a pathological event, caused by illness or injury. Sometimes it is created intentionally for a therapeutic reason, such as to stop bleeding or to kill a cancerous tumor by stopping its blood supply. Such therapy is called embolization.

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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Embolism, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.