[Successful thrombolysis of a fulminant lung embolism during cardiopulmonary resuscitation].

A healthy 38-year-old woman suffered a sudden cardiac arrest 2 days after a vaginal hysterectomy. Although standard cardiac life support (CPR) was instituted immediately after the event, it was not possible to re-establish a spontaneous circulation for about 40 min. Systemic intravenous thrombolytic therapy with slow injection of 1.5 million IU urokinase was performed as a final life-maintaining measure because of the high probability that the underlying cause was a pulmonary embolus; 10 min later (after 60 min of ongoing CPR) the patient regained a stable circulation. She survived without neurological deficit in spite of the long duration of CPR.