Endovascular thrombectomy with the AngioJet System for the treatment of intermediate-risk acute pulmonary embolism: a case report of two patients

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is one of the leading causes of death and ranks third, after myocardial infarction and cerebral stroke, among fatal hospital-related cardiovascular events [1–3]. Mortality associated with PE can be lowered by early treatments aimed at restoring patency of occluded pulmonary arteries (PAs). Although systemic thrombolysis remains the recommended management of PE [4], recent advances in endovascular techniques, especially of rheolytic thrombectomy, suggest that the endovascular approach can represent an alternative therapeutic strategy [5–9]. Here we describe endovascular treatment of two patients with acute PE. We used the AngioJet (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA) rheolytic thrombectomy system. According to the available information, including personal communications, these were the second and third applications of this system in Poland for acute PE, and the first successful ones.