Catheter-directed therapy for submassive pulmonary embolism after unsuccessful systemic thrombolysis

Catheter-directed therapy (CDT) has emerged as an important treatment for pulmonary embolism (PE). We present a patient with life-threatening submassive PE with transient hypotension, progressive right ventricular dysfunction, and respiratory failure who failed anticoagulation and had little improvement with systemic thrombolysis, but responded well to catheter-directed therapy.