Intraoperative TEE monitoring on pulmonary thromboembolectomy--a case report

We present a successful thromboembolectomy under intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) monitoring on a woman with massive pulmonary embolism (PE). Sudden onset of dyspnea happened 7 days after lumbar spine surgery and ventilation/perfusion scan and angiography performed right away were suggestive of PE. Operation was performed 17 days later after invalid anticoagulant treatments and unavailing catheter fragmentation. Intraoperative TEE showed massive emboli in the main and right pulmonary arteries (MPA and RPA) and dilated right atrium (RA) with deviated intraatrial septum. Removal of the emboli was performed smoothly under TEE monitoring. The dilation of RA, right ventricle (RV) and PA were resolved soon after thromboembolectomy. The patient was extubated the next day with obvious improvement of clinical symptoms and discharged two weeks later without neurological sequale. We conclude that TEE can be an excellent tool not only for early diagnosing PE in high risk patients but also for intraoperative monitoring on removing emboli and managing cardiac functions.