[Right ventricular assist device (RVAD) in septic, fulminating pulmonary artery embolism].

We describe a 34-year-old male with pulmonary embolism. The patient had been admitted to a peripheral hospital for incision and drainage of a very large ischio-rectal abscess. Four days after successful surgical intervention and during a change of dressings he developed a massive pulmonary artery embolism. The patient was transferred to the Department of Cardiac Surgery in Graz; on arrival he had a cardiac arrest. Resuscitation was initiated and the patient was transferred to the operating theatre where emergency sternotomy and embolectomy revealed large thrombotic mases in the pulmonary circulation