Circulation. Cardiovascular interventions
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Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a serious and prevalent cause of vascular disease. Nevertheless, optimal treatment for many phenotypes of PE remains uncertain. Treating PE requires appropriate risk stratification as a first step. ⋯ One method to counteract uncertainty and generate a consensus multidisciplinary prognostic and therapeutic plan is through a Pulmonary Embolism Response Team, which combines expertise from interventional cardiology, interventional radiology, cardiac surgery, cardiac imaging, and critical care. Such a team can help determine which intervention-catheter-directed fibrinolysis, ultrasound-assisted thrombolysis, percutaneous mechanical thrombus fragmentation, or percutaneous or surgical embolectomy-is best suited to a particular patient. This article reviews these various modalities and the background for each.