Acute basilar artery occlusion has a mortality rate approaching 90%. The authors describe a case of acute basilar artery occlusion managed successfully with endovascular embolectomy. A 31-year-old man sought treatment for confusion, dysarthria, and right-sided weakness. He soon became unresponsive and was found to have a vertebral artery dissection and an associated basilar artery embolism. The...

ONE of the main difficulties in assessing the results of any surgical procedure is the provision of a directly comparable series of patients on whom it has not been employed. Nowhere is this more evident than in trying to determine the value of embolectomy in the management of peripheral arterial emboli. The problem of comparing the results of conservative and operative management is considerab...

High-risk pulmonary embolism (PE) is a life-threatening disorder associated with high mortality and morbidity. Most deaths in patients with shock occur within the first few hours after presentation, and rapid diagnosis and treatment is therefore essential to save patients' lives. The main manifestations of major PE are acute right ventricular (RV) failure and hypoxia. RV pressure overload is pr...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Maturing techniques have spurred widespread implementation of endovascular embolectomy therapy for ischemic stroke. We evaluated a large administrative database to determine outcomes in patients treated with endovascular embolectomy in the general population. METHODS Using the National Inpatient Sample, we evaluated outcomes of patients treated for acute ischemic stroke...

We describe a 54-yr-old man with cardiogenic shock caused by acute right heart failure after pulmonary embolectomy. Inhalation of nitric oxide led to immediate improvement in respiratory and haemodynamic variables. Inhaled nitric oxide can be used to reduce acute right heart failure until conventional therapy can provide successful haemodynamic stability.

for Acute Pulmonary Embolism To the Editor: We read with great interest a review paper titled “Acute Pulmonary Embolism, Part II: Risk Stratification, Treatment, and Prevention” by Goldhaber and associates in the December 2003 issue of the journal.1 The strategies for acute pulmonary embolism in their review are anticoagulation, inferior vena caval filters, thrombolysis, and embolectomy. They m...