title: Reports of four surgical treatments of acute pulmonary embolism with a floating thrombus in the right atrium.
abstract: Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) is a serious disease. Recently, multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) has proven to be valuable in detecting APE and deep vein thrombosis. APE is classified as massive, submassive, and nonmassive. The incidence of submassive APE and the number of therapeutic approaches for clinically diagnosed critical submassive APE have both increased. However, most strategies for submassive APE have been conservative, e.g., transvenous catheter pulmonary embolectomy, and there are few reports on surgical pulmonary embolectomy. We examined the surgical outcomes in four cases of submassive APE with a floating thrombus in the right atrium (RA) from August 2003 to July 2008. All patients appeared to have no neurological complications and showed an event-free survival of up to 65 months (37 ± 25 months). Surgical pulmonary embolectomy was effective for submassive APE with a floating thrombus in the RA.
authors: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Sugao-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Ando
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Abe
authors: Tokuichiro
authors: T
authors: Nagata
authors: Yuka
authors: Y
authors: Sakurai
authors: Masahide
authors: M
authors: Chikada
authors: Toshiya
authors: T
authors: Kobayashi
authors: Haruo
authors: H
authors: Makuuchi
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017128:Embolectomy; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D011859:Radiography; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014463:Ultrasonography