[Clinical-pathologoanatomic analysis of post-operative thromboembolism of pulmonary artery]

Autopsy and clinical data were analysed for 803 surgical patients whose death was due to pulmonary artery thromboembolism (PAT). PAT was diagnosed intravitally in 32% of the deceased. 87% of the patients with PAT symptoms died within 2 hours. 3/4 of PATs developed in uneventful postoperative period, 1/4--in complications. The cause of PAT in 99.3% of cases were thromboses in vena cava inferior. In 88.3% of cases these thromboses ran latently. Frequency of postoperative PAT as a cause of death was 1.4% in 1972-1973, 2.1% in 1990-1991, 1.3% in 1997. The fall of the death rate is explained by introduction of drug prophylaxis of PAT.