Surgical Pulmonary Embolectomy: Four Cases Report

Acute massive or submassive pulmonary embolism (pe) requires prompt diagnosis and aggressive treatment. mortality rates can rise up to 70% within the first hour of presentation and are strongly correlated with the degree of right ventricular (rv) dysfunction, cardiac arrest, and consequential congestive heart failure. pulmonary embolectomy was performed on 4 cases that diagnosed as pulmonary embolism (pe) at department of cardiovascular surgery, school of medicine of fırat university. three of the cases were female, one was male and the avarage age was 51 (32-67). deep vein thrombosis was present in all patients. the cause of deep vein thrombosis was trauma in two patient, oral contraseptives use in one and gynecologic operation in one patient. the preoperative diagnosis was established by echocardiography and computed tomography. in four patients with mpe, urgent pulmony embolectomy were performed by median sternotomy, using extracorporeal circulation (ecc). mortality was observed in one case (%25). this patient had taken to operating room with resuscitation because of cardiac arrest. we conclude that, pulmonary embolectomy using ecc in early period of life-threatening mpe may be a life saver procedure