Successful treatment of postoperative massive pulmonary embolism with paradoxal arterial embolism through extracorporeal life support and thrombolysis.

Pulmonary embolism is a common clinical entity related to high mortality. About 200,000 to 300,000 patients die every year due to pulmonary embolism. The purpose of this article is to describe a case of a patient who on the second postoperative day after undergoing thromboembolectomy of the left femoral artery, manifested a massive pulmonary embolism. Due to cardiorespiratory collapse a combined treatment via extracorporeal life support (ECLS) and parallel catheter thrombolysis was decided and performed. By cardiorespiratory improvement and final stabilization the patient was successfully weaned from ECLS and the system was successfully removed. After a reasonable postoperative time the patient was dismissed in good overall condition.

Hamman's syndrome (spontaneous pneumomediastinum presenting as subcutaneous emphysema): A rare case of the emergency department and review of the literature.

Pneumomediastinum is a rare clinical entity that concerns the clinicians in the emergency department. We present a case of a patient with spontaneous pneumomediastinum (Hamman's syndrome) that presented to our hospital's emergency department with cervical subcutaneous emphysema. A conservative treatment with observation was performed. The patient after 24 hours of observation was discharged with a suggested follow-up.