Use of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation and Surgical Embolectomy for Massive Pulmonary Embolism in the Emergency Department

Publication date: November 2017
Source:The Journal of Emergency Medicine, Volume 53, Issue 5
Author(s): De Ante Russ, Nicole Payne, Mark Bonnell, Viviane Kazan
BackgroundMassive pulmonary embolism (PE) carries significant morbidity and mortality with current standard of care modalities.Case ReportWe present the case of a 63-year-old male status post abdominal surgery 2 weeks before presenting to the emergency department with a massive pulmonary embolism and subsequent acute cardiopulmonary failure.Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This?Here we describe a case of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) deployed in the emergency department as a bridge to embolectomy to successfully treat massive pulmonary embolism. This provided the opportunity to establish a "Code ECMO" protocol and algorithm for PE with cardiopulmonary instability so that patients can be rapidly triaged to the appropriate treatment modality.



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