Death rate from pulmonary embolism following joint replacement surgery.

This paper comprises a retrospective study of the incidence of death from pulmonary embolism following total hip and total knee replacement surgery in a unit which does not employ routine prophylactic anticoagulation. There were a total of 1569 patients, of whom 1362 had total hip replacements and 207, knee replacements. Fatal pulmonary embolism occurred in six patients. The need for routine prophylactic anticoagulation is questioned.