Pulmonary embolism in neurosurgical patients

We report the outcome of a retrospective study on the frequency of pulmonary embolism during the hospital stay in a series of 7,250 neurosurgical patients. Of 4,500 patients who underwent surgery 25 (0.55%) developed pulmonary embolism at some point after the operation while 5 of the 2,750 patients not operated on (0.18%) developed a fatal pulmonary embolism. We analyze the general risk factors--age, sex, length of stay and paralysis of the limbs. Meningioma was the most frequent intracranial tumor to be affected by this complication. We discuss the connection between thromboembolism and meningioma.