The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 52, 137-138, Copyright © 1991 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography for pulmonary embolectomy without cardiopulmonary bypass
P Deleuze, M Saada, R De Paulis, L Brochard, JP Mazzucotelli, N Rotman, DY Loisance and JP Cachera
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Hospital Henri Mondor, Creteil, France.
This case report describes a patient with massive pulmonary embolism and
acute circulatory failure in whom transesophageal echocardiography
permitted the diagnosis of thrombi in the main pulmonary truncus and in the
right branch and guided intraoperatively the surgical embolectomy performed
under simple venous inflow occlusion because of a contraindication to
heparin administration. Transesophageal echocardiography seems to be a very
helpful technique to diagnose promptly massive pulmonary embolism and a
very useful tool at the time of operation to guide the embolectomy.