• Masayuki Kuroiwa, Norimasa Seo, Hitoshi Furuya, Kazuo Irita, Tomohiro Sawa, Makoto Ito, and Mashio Nakamura.
• Department of Anesthesiology, National Hospital Organization, Sagamihara National Hospital, Sagamihara 228-0815.
• Masui. 2006 Aug 1; 55 (8): 1031-8.

BackgroundThe incidence of perioperative pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is reported not to be low in Japan. The aim of this study is to investigate the incidence and characteristics of perioperative PTE in Japan in 2004.MethodsA questionnaire was mailed to 960 institutions registered as the teaching hospitals of the Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (JSA). The survey details included age, sex, type of surgery, and risk factors of patients operated in 2004.ResultsEffective responses were received from 642 institutions (66.9%) of 960 institutions. A total of 409 cases of perioperative PTE were reported from 245 institutions (25.5% of the institutions responded). The incidence of perioperative PTE was 3.62 per 10,000 cases. Cardiac arrest occurred at the onset in 65 cases (15.9%). Of the patients, 150 (36.7%) had malignancy; 142 (34.7%) were obese; and 121 (29.6%) were bed-ridden (> 4 days). In 273 cases (66.7%), the patients were over 60 years of age. PTE was found to be more frequent in females than in males (males, 147 cases; females, 259 cases). The types of surgery resulted in perioperative PTE with high frequency were "spinal surgery" (6.95 per 10,000 cases) and "limbs and/or hip joint surgery" (9.79 per 10,000 cases). Eighty-nine patients (21.8%) died from perioperative PTE.ConclusionsThe incidence of perioperative PTE was not low and its mortality was high in Japan in 2004. In particular, the incidence of perioperative PTE was found to be high in females, the elderly, patients with malignancy, and patients who had undergone orthopedic surgery.

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