[Pulmonary embolism as a serious complication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from material from Ward "R"]

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a serious complication of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Retrospective studies on patients with COPD treated intensive care unit (ICU) were performed to determine: 1. frequency of PE, 2. clinical course of PE in ICU-COPD-cases, 3. frequency of PE as a cause of death in the studied group. There was 10.9% of PE in COPD patients. In the analyzed group clinical presentation of PE was characterized by acute, severe, life threatening complications leading to death in 86.7%. PE was the most frequent cause of death (40.6%) in ICU-COPD patients. The results of treatment of PE in COPD are poor and the mortality in that group of patients is very high. We believe, that the improvement of management can be achieved by antithromboembolic prophylaxis, which should be instituted as soon as possible in all ICU-COPD-patients.