THE RESULTS OF 3 CASES OF UNILATERAL PULMONARY EMBOLECTOMY THROUGH RIGHT THORACOTOMY APPROACH FOR CHRONIC PULMONARY-EMBOLISM

Three patients with chronic pulmonary embolism underwent successfully unilateral pulmonary arterial thromboembolectomy. In these cases, seve re degree of right heart failure and respiratory distress were the pri mary indications to the operation. Under normothermic partial cardiopu lmonary bypass, right unilateral pulmonary thromboembolectomy were per formed with beating heart. Distal counter-incision was found to be fac ilitated to remove thrombi completely from the distal pulmonary artery . In the results of long-term study, postoperative cardiac catheteriza tion data encouraged us to use this technique in the surgical treatmen t for the selective cases of this disease. All three patients have bee n doing well without any sign of recurrence up to 17 years of the surg ery.