[Quick decisionmaking for acute pulmonary embolism patients]

Treatment options for patients with severe pulmonary embolism (PE) have increased substantially over the past decade. Although systemic thrombolysis is still the reperfusion therapy of choice for hemodynamically unstable PE patients, several new catheter guided reperfusion therapies have emerged as possibly safer alternatives. These therapies are increasingly implemented in clinical practice even though their efficacy and safety are yet to be proven by clinical outcome studies. Along with the rise of new interventional therapies has come the introduction of multidisciplinary Pulmonary Embolism Response Teams (EXPERT-PE, referred to as PERT in the United States), composed of multidisciplinary experts involved in treating acute PE. The EXPERT-PE concept provides a multidisciplinary and rapid platform for deciding on an individualized treatment strategy in an era of rapidly developing advanced treatment options, combining expert opinion from all involved specialties and forming the base for future research in PE care.