• Ayuko Magara, Yuko Yamaoka, Yuriko Murata, Miharu Shiraishi, and Hideaki Tsuchida.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa 920-0293.
• Masui. 2011 Apr 1; 60 (4): 511-5.

BackgroundThe Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (JSA) has investigated the incidence of postoperative pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) for several years.MethodsAccording to the JSA project, we surveyed the annual incidence of postoperative PTE in Kanazawa Medical University Hospital in 2008.ResultsPTE 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.ConclusionsOur data suggest that the actual incidence of postoperative PTE in Japan may be far greater than that reported by the JSA.

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