[Incidence and clinical characteristics of perioperative pulmonary thromboembolism in Japan in 2008--results from the annual study of Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists, Committee on Patient Safety and Risk Management, Perioperative Pulmonary Thromboembolism Working Group].

BACKGROUND

The Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (JSA) has maintained records of the annual incidence and characteristics of perioperative pulmonary thromboembolism (perioperative PTE) since 2002. The aim of this paper was to provide recent results of the JSA annual study conducted in 2008, and to determine the current factors that tend to prevent perioperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) in Japan.

METHODS

A comprehensive questionnaire designed by the JSA PTE working group was mailed to all institutions certified as teaching hospitals by JSA. The data tics of patients with perioperative PTE, such as types of diseases and surgeries, age, sex, methods used for the prevention of VTE (in some cases), and prognosis of perioperative PTE.

RESULTS

The rate of effective responses was 56.1% (634/1116), and 1,177,626 surgeries were registered during the study period. There were 324 patients who were reported to have had PTE, and the incidence was 2.75 per 10,000 surgeries. The incidence of perioperative PTE in 2008 did not change significantly from that in 2005-07. The surgeries that most commonly resulted in perioperative PTE were limb and/or hip joint surgery (5.71 per 10,000 surgeries), craniotomy (4.64 per 10,000), and thoracotomy with laparotomy (3.46 per 10,000 surgeries). The mortality rate of perioperative PTE in 2008 was found to have significantly decreased from that in 2005-07 (15.6% vs. 22.4%; P = 0.01). Further, the rate of patients who received anticoagulant drugs in 2008 was significantly higher than that in 2005-07 (17.6% vs. 10.8%; P = 0.0018). Individual guidelines for the prevention of perioperative VTE were adopted in 55.4% of the training institutions.

CONCLUSIONS

The increase in the percentage of patients who received anticoagulant drugs around the time of the operation, and the decreased mortality of patients with perioperative PTE suggested that the prophylaxis for perioperative VTE with anticoagulant drugs reduces perioperative mortality.