What Is a Pulmonary Embolism?

Hi, it's Dr Andrew. It's Blood Clot Awareness Month. Here's what you need to know. This is video four of 31. It was probably a bit ambitious of me to think I could post a daily video, especially with the travelling and the jet lag, but this is me trying to catch up.

Topic today: what is a pulmonary embolus? This follows neatly on from what we've discussed before. Essentially, a pulmonary embolus occurs when a blood clot forms in the deep veins of the leg, forming a deep vein thrombosis, and the clot breaks off, travels towards the heart and gets stuck in the pulmonary arteries. Importantly, these supply blood to the lungs to be oxygenated again. When it gets stuck, you can't breathe properly and the blood can't oxygenate properly. And this can be fatal.

Diagnosis and early recognition are absolutely key, because if done early enough, these can be removed. The technique is called aspiration thrombectomy, and we do it using a catheter. It travels up the groin to the pulmonary arteries, going across the heart, and we can suck out the clot. […] So act fast, know the signs and symptoms and stop the clot.