[Indications and technic of surgical treatment of pulmonary embolism]

Authors describe the surgical technique for pulmonary embolectomy and review the cases of the patients undergoing such operation. On the basis of the obtained results, Authors think that the unsuccessful cases are mainly due to the very deteriorated preoperative clinical state of these patients and to associated illness. Authors believe that the familiarity with this kind of procedure and the prompt decision to perform it before a further worsening of the clinical conditions have a positive influence on its results and that surgical indication should not be limited to the patients in cardiac arrest, but instead extended to those cases showing rapid deterioration of the clinical state.