Current mainstay treatment for pulmonary embolism (PE) includes oral anticoagulation, thrombolytic therapy, catheter embolectomy and acute surgical embolectomy. Surgical embolectomy is reserved for hemodynamically unstable patients (cardiogenic shock, cardiac arrest) and contraindication to thrombolytic therapy. We report a case of saddle PE in a young female with echocardiographic signs of rig...

OBJECTIVES Pulmonary hypertension is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients following acute pulmonary embolism. Although thrombolytic therapy decreases pulmonary arterial pressure, compared with anticoagulation alone, it has the propensity for haemorrhagic complications, distal embolization and incomplete recanalization, with the potential risk of late pulmonary hypertension. Surg...

OBJECTIVES During cardiac surgery it is sometimes necessary to examine heart chambers remote from the site of surgery. Similarly visualization of the pulmonary arterial tree will enable assessment for the completeness of pulmonary embolectomy. There are no standard adjunctive procedures to accomplish this. Left ventriculotomy used to examine the left ventricle, and maneuvers used to ensure comp...

Current treatment of life threatening venous thrombo-embolism (VTE) has been based on general concepts dating to the early 1900s. In this manuscript a general overview of current diagnostic and therapeutic methods of VTE is presented along with the Emory University Affiliated Hospitals’ experience of the surgical treatment of life threatening VTE. We retrospectively analyzed the data of twenty-...

Case presentation: A 65-year-old man presented to the emergency department after a fall and was diagnosed with a fracture of the right femoral neck. He was scheduled for surgical repair the following day. During positioning for arthroplasty, he developed hypotension, tachycardia, and hypoxia, followed by pulseless electric activity. He was resuscitated and maintained on epinephrine and norepine...

A 13 months male child presented with progressive dyspnea of three months and recent cyanosis. Cardio-respiratory examination revealed tachypnea, cyanosis, left parasternal heave and loud P2. Echocardiography revealed thrombus in pulmonary artery and severe pulmonary arterial hypertension. Tests for throbmophilia demonstrated protein S deficiency. Treatment included anticoagulants, sildenafil, ...