[Fulminant pulmonary artery embolism in the early postoperative phase. Use of transesophageal echocardiography in acute diagnostics].

Acute pulmonary embolism is a serious perioperative complication with a high mortality. A case of early onset pulmonary embolism with acute right heart failure and resuscitation after spinal surgery is reported. The diagnosis was rapidly and reliably confirmed by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and a right atrial thrombus was detected. Persistent life-threatening hemodynamic instability required thrombolysis with 100 mg recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA). The patient survived this critical situation but sustained permanent paraparesis.