Success of Gdansk medics. PERT UCK team saves life in critical case

• The PERT UCK team has been operating for two years and is one of seven such specialist units in Poland
• The Invasive Cardiology Laboratory at the University Clinical Center has already performed several dozen percutaneous pulmonary thrombectomy procedures.
• The Gdańsk-based centre faces unique clinical challenges, including removing clots from heart chambers and performing interventions on patients after lung transplantation.

The medical community in Gdańsk can celebrate success in the fight against acute pulmonary embolism. The multidisciplinary Pulmonary Embolism Rapid Response Team (PERT) from the University Clinical Center has been operating for two years - and now it has saved the life of a patient in critical condition. The woman, struggling with acute pulmonary embolism and cardiogenic shock, required immediate intervention, including connection to ECMO equipment and two percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy procedures, which allowed for the removal of the clot.

- The case of this patient is an example of effective, highly specialized cooperation between cardiologists and cardiac surgeons from the University of Medical Sciences (UCK) within the existing Pulmonary Embolism Rapid Response Team (PERT), which has been operating in our hospital for two years - said Dr. Dariusz Ciećwierz, coordinator of the Invasive Cardiology Laboratory and the Cardiology Clinic of the University of Medical Sciences (UCK), University of Medical Sciences (GUMed) hospital, quoted in the GUMed press release.

The PERT team is a highly specialized unit consisting of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, pneumonologists, intensivists, anaesthesiologists and specialized nursing care. It is one of only seven such teams in Poland. To date, dozens of pulmonary thrombectomy procedures have been performed in the UCK Invasive Cardiology Laboratory. The Gdańsk center faces unique challenges, often on a global scale, such as removing large clots from the heart chambers or interventions in patients after lung transplantation. The team's work is based on the consensus of experts from the Polish Cardiac Society, and in June last year a meeting was also organized for Pomeranian cardiology centers to optimize cooperation. The hospital is constantly expanding its equipment resources: recently, the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk significantly expanded the facilities for this type of procedure, including large-diameter catheters and EKOS local thrombolysis systems.

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