Surgical Pulmonary Embolectomy Historically and according to current guidelines, surgical embolectomy (SE) is reserved for patients in whom thrombolysis was contraindicated or had failed. Therefore the majority of SE were performed in critically ill patients, resulting in high mortality rates.12 Recent publications including our own experience reported reduced mortality rates even in patients with cardiac arrest and preoperative cardiopulmonary resuscitation13. Many authors question the restrictive role of SE compared to systemic thrombolytic therapy and advocate SE in hemodynamically stable patients with signs of RV Dysfunction and high clot burden in the central pulmonary artery.