[Intraoperative thrombolysis with rt-PA in massive pulmonary embolism during venous thrombectomy]

In patients with deep venous thrombosis, there is a recent trend towards surgical thrombectomy to avoid late complications. However, up to 10% of these patients suffer from severe intraoperative pulmonary embolism, 30 to 40% of whom die on the operating table. Treatment options for massive pulmonary embolism include embolectomy (high mortality), transvenous thrombus fragmentation techniques, and thrombolytic therapy. However, while thrombolysis is recommended as the treatment of choice for PTE, it is usually considered contraindicated in surgical patients because of bleeding complications. We report on 5 cases of severe pulmonary thromboembolism with marked cardiogenic shock during venous thrombectomy. Three patients were treated successfully by intraoperative thrombolysis alone or in combination with mechanical fragmentation of the embolus using a catheter technique under fluoroscopy (one case). Diagnosis was established by a sudden decrease of mean arterial pressure (from 83 to 45 mmHg), a marked increase of mean pulmonary artery pressure (MPAP) (from 16 to 43 mmHg), hypoxaemia (SaO2 < 90%), an increased arterial-to-end-tidal CO2-difference (from 7 to 42 mmHg), and/or pulmonary angiography (2 cases). All patients had to be treated with high dosages of catecholamines (norepinephrine 0.5 microgram.kg-1.min-1 or epinephrine 0.1 microgram.kg-1.min-1, and dopamine 6-15 micrograms.kg-1.min-1). Three patients required CPR prior to or during thrombolytic therapy. Thrombolysis was started intraoperatively with rt-PA with dosages ranging from 20 to 90 mg, applied in single injections (5-75 mg) followed by infusions (5 or 10 mg.h-1) for up to 8 hours.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)