[Pulmonary embolectomy for acute massive pulmonary thromboembolism after failure of thrombolytic therapy]

Acute massive pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is associated with an exceptionally high mortality rate and results in death if not diagnosed early and treated properly. We observed 3 cases of acute massive PTE. One of the patients had undergone a surgery for femoral neck fracture. Ten days postoperatively, she developed severe dyspnea with hypoxia, and computed tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography confirmed the PTE diagnosis. She then had cardiac arrest when catheter examination. Although emergency surgical thrombectomy was successful with good postoperative hemodynamic stability and oxygenation, the patient did not recover from the unconsciousness caused by preoperative ischemic brain damage. Subsequently, she died 6 months after surgery. Of the 3 patients, 2 suffered from right ventricular dysfunction without hemodynamic instability. They underwent open thrombectomy after the failure of conservative treatment with a systemic injection of urokinase. Both patients demonstrated a good clinical course and were discharged from hospital in a good general condition 22 and 28 days postoperatively. Herein, we review the current literature on PTE treatment. We concluded that an aggressive surgical intervention might be preferred to thrombolytic therapy for PTE patients with massive thrombosis and progressive right ventricular dysfunction.