Percutaneous embolectomy saves lives of patients with COVID

Acute pulmonary embolism is the third leading cause of cardiovascular mortality. One of the strong risk factor for this disease is SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and concomitant acute pulmonary embolism can be successfully treated conservatively (with heparins), but approximately 5% require aggressive treatment with advanced percutaneous techniques. Failure to perform such treatment in this group of patients increases mortality to 30%.

This procedure saves patients' lives. Physicians from MUW provide many of these highly specialized interventions. One of the most recent was a procedure performed in a 57-year-old patient with a SARS-CoV-2 infection that caused inflammatory changes involving up to 60% of the lung parenchyma. The patient was in shock from acute pulmonary embolism. The patient, after a short stay in the Intensive Care Unit and the Department of Cardiology, was discharged home in good condition. The procedure was performed by Marek Roik, MD, PhD, and his team.

Most inpatients or outpatients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are immobile, and the ongoing generalized inflammation promotes venous thromboembolism. In nearly 25-30% of patients admitted with COVID-19 to hospital wards chest CT scans show centrally (1/3) or peripherally (2/3) localized thromboembolism. The Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology at UCC MUW, headed by Prof. Piotr Pruszczyk, is a leading center with the highest referral level in the treatment of patients with acute pulmonary. Since 16.10.2020, by the decision of the Mazovia Province Governor, it has been transformed into a cardiology ward dedicated to the treatment of patients with acute cardiac diseases in the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Since the transformation of the Department, dozens of patients with venous thromboembolism have been hospitalized, and several patients have undergone percutaneous embolectomy with very good results.