Un infarctus, mais pas du myocarde!

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common and serious cardiovascular disease. The management of PE patients with myocardial damage but without hemodynamic instability (intermediate/high risk) has long remained limited to anticoagulant therapy with no demonstrated positive effect of thrombolysis. In this specific population, percutaneous techniques have been developed and appear as interesting alternative in patients with clinical, biological and morphological severity criteria to reduce the evolutive risk to a more severe form and improve patients’ prognosis. We report here the case of a 49-year-old patient treated for a massive bilateral and proximal PE revealed by syncope with right ventricular impact in whom percutaneous pulmonary thrombectomy was proposed in the absence of clinical improvement after the initiation of anticoagulant therapy. The precise indications for percutaneous techniques need to be clarified in patients with intermediate/high risk PE and ongoing randomized studies should provide additional results to better identify their place in the therapeutic arsenal.