An Arizona man suffering from pulmonary emboli, or blood clots in the lungs, had a successful surgery to remove the life threatening clots. The procedure, called a Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy, is a rare and risky one. The surgery is very extreme and requires the surgeons to stop the heart of the patient to perform the procedure. Unlike heart bypass surgery, where the patients blood can be circulated by a machine while the heart is stopped, in this case the blood circulation is stopped completely for a portion of the surgery.
To compensate for the lack of blood flow, the body is cooled rapidly to protect the organs and brain. Less than 65 degrees is the typical patient temperature. Once the blood flow is stopped, surgeons rapidly remove the clots from the blood vessels of the lungs.
This procedure is typically done as a last resort as the chance of dying during the surgery is estimated to be 5-15%
A video about Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy and the most recent patient to have a successful surgery can be found here: PTE Video
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wow. i think this is amazing stuff.