RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (JSA) has investigated the incidence of postoperative pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) for several years. METHODS: According to the JSA project, we surveyed the annual incidence of postoperative PTE in Kanazawa Medical University Hospital in 2008. RESULTS: PTE was diagnosed radiographically in 6 out of 2339 patients, who were > or =15 years of age and had undergone surgical procedures under general anesthesia. The incidence was 0.257% and approximately tenfold that reported by the JSA. All the patients were subjected to lower extremity surgery. Two patients went into shock after they had first walked postoperatively. Symptoms of the other four patients were nonspecific but surgeons in charge suspected PTE. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that the actual incidence of postoperative PTE in Japan may be far greater than that reported by the JSA.
