Nursing Commons^™

Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension, Alyssa Curry

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Chronic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a rare and underdiagnosed complication of unresolved acute pulmonary embolism (PE). A chronic fibrotic thrombus replaces the unresolved emboli in the pulmonary vascular bed causing pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension (Mahmud et al., 2018). Symptoms rang from mild nonspecific such as exercise intolerance and dyspnea. As the disease progresses, symptoms present similarly to right ventricular heart failure (Gopalan et al., 2016). Although the pathophysiology and etiology of CTEPH is still not fully understood, risk factors include increased size of the PE, right ventricular strain, chronic inflammation, and defects in fibrinolysis among others (Fernandes et al., 2016). Treatment …