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.