Introduction
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a life-threatening condition that often requires emergency surgery. Surgical pulmonary artery (PA) thrombectomy is an established emergency treatment for massive PE1,2. This procedure has facilitated the treatment of most PE cases. However, surgery for severe PE, requiring thrombectomy including peripheral PAs, remains challenging3. In such clinical situations, it is difficult to obtain an operative field for direct visualization of the peripheral PA. Recently, we established a simple and secure PA thrombectomy technique utilizing a surgical assistant arm (TERUMO Corporation, Japan), typically used for coronary artery bypass grafting, to obtain a feasible working space. Herein, we report a case series of massive PE treated using our surgical method involving peripheral PA thrombectomy.