Pulmonary thromboembolism remains a major therapeutic challenge for specialists and, despite investment and the consequent developments in diagnosis, prophylaxis, and treatment, the condition is still the leading cause of avoidable deaths in hospital settings. There is still great uncertainty with relation to the profile of patients who will actually benefit from systemic fibrinolytic treatment, without being exposed to serious risk of bleeding. There are tools that can help to identify patients who will benefit, including risk stratification and estimation of the prognosis of the event, with clinical scores for right ventricular failure, markers of right ventricular dysfunction and dilatation, and thrombotic mass assessment, whether alone or in combination. The only points of consensus with relation to fibrinolytic therapy for treatment of pulmonary thromboembolism are as follows: it should not be routinely indicated, none of the scores or markers alone should be used to justify its use, and patients with hemodynamic instability are the most likely to benefit. Furthermore, each case should be evaluated for risk of bleeding, especially central nervous system bleeding.
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