Massive pulmonary emboli in children: does fiber-optic-guided embolectomy have a role? Review of the literature and report of two cases.

Massive pulmonary emboli is a rare disease in children, with only 39 reported cases in the last 50 years. Almost 50% of the patients died suddenly without receiving medical treatment. Most of the patients who were managed medically (70% of the treated patients) underwent surgical pulmonary embolectomy with 80% survival. Surgical pulmonary embolectomy is a blind procedure that can be improved by using intraoperative angioscopy. This technique was reported in adults with good results. In this article, we describe two pediatric patients who underwent fiber-optic-guided surgical pulmonary embolectomy. To our knowledge, this technique has never been reported in the pediatric population.