Pulmonary thrombectomy 4231489 186527715 2008-01-24T05:36:18Z Michael Devore 44833 remove user sig In [[thoracic surgery]], a '''pulmonary thrombectomy''', is an [[emergency procedure]] that removes [[blood clot|clotted]] [[blood]] ([[thrombus]]) from the [[pulmonary artery|pulmonary arteries]]. Mechanical thrombectomies can be surgical (surgical thrombectomy) or percutaneous (percutaneous thrombectomy).<ref>Casazza F, Roncon L, Greco F. Pulmonary embolism: treatment of the acute episode. Ital Heart J. 2005 Oct;6(10):818-23. PMID 16270473.</ref> Surgical thrombectomies were once popular but were abandoned because of poor long-term outcomes. Recently, in selected patients, they have gone through a resurgence with the revision of the surgical technique.<ref>Augustinos P, Ouriel K. Invasive approaches to treatment of venous thromboembolism. Circulation. 2004 Aug 31;110(9 Suppl 1):I27-34. PMID 15339878. [http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/110/9_suppl_1/I-27 Free Full Text].</ref> ==Relation to PTE== Pulmonary thrombectomies and [[pulmonary thromboendarterectomy|pulmonary thromboendarterectomies]] (PTEs) are both operations that remove thrombus. Aside from this similarity they differ in many ways. *PTEs are done non-emergently whilst pulmonary thrombectomies are typically done as an emergency procedure. *PTEs typically are done using hypothermia and full cardiac arrest. *PTEs are done for chronic pulmonary embolism, thrombectomies for severe acute pulmonary embolism. *PTEs are generally considered a very effective treatment, surgical thrombectomies are an area of some controversy and their effectiveness a matter of some debate in the medical community. ==See also== *[[Pulmonary embolism]] *[[Heart-lung machine]] ==References== <references/> [[Category:Thoracic surgery]] [[Category:Surgical procedures]] {{Surgery-stub}}