Acute pulmonary embolism: successful embolectomy using cardiopulmonary bypass.

A SUCCESSFUL pulmonary embolectomy using cardiopulmonary bypass was reported for the first time by Cooley et al.1 in 1961. Prior to Cooley's report there had been sporadic descriptions of successful operations using Trendelenburg's technique. Nevertheless, the majority of such emergency operations have not been successful, and for this reason we are reporting the case of a patient who survived removal of numerous bilateral pulmonary emboli when this was done with the assistance of cardiopulmonary bypass.