SUCCESSFUL THROMBOLYSIS OF A SEVERE PULMO NARY-EMBOLISM DURING CARDIOPULMONARY-RESUSCITATION

A healthy 38-year-old woman suffered a sudden cardiac arrest 2 days af ter a vaginal hysterectomy. Although standard cardiac life support (CP R) was instituted immediately after the event, it was not possible to reestablish a spontaneous circulation for about 40 min. Systemic intra venous thrombolytic therapy with slow injection of 1.5 million IU urok inase was performed as a final life-maintaining measure because of the high probability that the underlying cause was a pulmonary embolus; 1 0 min later (after 60 min of ongoing CPR) the patient regained a stabl e circulation. She survived without neurological deficit in spite of t he long duration of CPR.