Integrating pulmonary embolism response teams: perspectives and outcomes from a European and German survey analysis

In recent years, establishing multidisciplinary pulmonary embolism response teams (PERTs/EXPERT-PE) has become more prevalent. A survey was conducted to assess the availability and structure of PERTs in German and European hospitals. A survey was circulated among German hospital centers with cardiovascular expertise to obtain data on their current PE treatment approaches, the existence and features of PERTs, their activation methods, and their structural organization. Additionally, data regarding PE treatment priority relative to acute coronary syndrome and the availability of outpatient PE follow-up programs was gathered. Results were compared with those of European PE reference centers. Overall, 65 hospitals participated at this German survey with most PERTs available at university hospitals (63%), especially in West (63%) and Southern (62%). Although 61.5% of the German centers handle over 40 PE cases annually, only 52.3% of those hospitals already implemented a PERT, which is low in comparison to a European Survey among PE reference centers (80.8%). In 86% cases, PERT is led by Cardiology, followed by Angiology (6.9%), Pulmonology (4.6%), and Critical Care Medicine (2.3%). Regarding advanced treatment the majority of hospitals performed catheter-directed thrombolysis (72.2%) and catheter-based thrombectomy/aspiration (74.1%). A follow-up program for patients with PE is considerable higher in European reference centers opposed to German hospitals. This survey demonstrated that among large German cardiovascular centers PERTs are markedly less often present compared to European PE reference centers. Additionally, in German centers, PE follow-up programs are not widely implemented. This emphasizes the pressing need for awareness campaigns for acute and chronic PE.