Treatment should be started as soon as possible in the emergency room as soon as the first symptoms of embolism appear, such as severe shortness of breath or bloody cough, for example. Learn more about the symptoms that identify embolism.
This treatment is done with injections of thrombolytic drugs, such as Urokinase or Alteplase, which help to dissolve the clot that is preventing the blood from reaching the lung.
If the clot cannot be eliminated with medication alone, it may be necessary to have a small surgery with local anesthesia, in which the doctor inserts a thin flexible tube through an artery in the arm or leg to the clot in the lung, removing -O.
This emergency treatment should be started as soon as possible to relieve symptoms and prevent serious complications such as cardiac arrest.
How treatment is done at home
After eliminating the lung clot, it is usually necessary to stay in hospital for at least 2 to 3 days to ensure that no new clots appear and to ensure that the oxygen levels in the body are normalized.
After that, the doctor usually prescribes anticoagulant medications, such as Warfarin or Heparin, which must be done daily at home, accordingly and which prevent the blood from becoming too thick and forming clots again.
In addition to these, the doctor may also indicate painkillers, such as Tramadol or acetaminophen, to relieve chest pain in the first days after treatment.
Possible sequelae of embolism
Since pulmonary embolism prevents the passage of blood to a part of the lung, the first sequel is related to decreased gas exchange and, therefore, there is less oxygen available in the blood. When this happens, there is an overload of the heart, which makes it work much faster to try to get the same amount of oxygen to reach the entire body.
Normally, embolism occurs in a small area of the lung, so the person does not suffer serious consequences. However, and although rare, the obstruction can also occur in a larger blood vessel, which is responsible for irrigating a larger part of the lung, in which case the consequences can be more serious because the tissue that does not receive oxygenated blood is retracts and there is no gas exchange in that part of the lung. As a result, the person may have a sudden death, which happens suddenly, or may have pulmonary sequelae, such as pulmonary hypertension.
Signs of improvement
The improvement of the symptoms appears a few minutes after the emergency treatment with relief of the difficulty to breathe and decrease of the pain in the chest.
Signs of worsening
The signs of worsening are increased difficulty in breathing and, finally, fainting, due to the decrease in the amount of oxygen in the body. If treatment is not started quickly, serious consequences such as cardiac arrest can be life-threatening.
