Changes in the incidence, case fatality rate, and characteristics of symptomatic perioperative pulmonary thromboembolism in Japan: Results of the 2002–2011 Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists Perioperative Pulmonary Thromboembolism (JSA-PTE) Study

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the incidence, case fatality rate, and characteristics of perioperative symptomatic pulmonary thromboembolism (PS-PTE) throughout Japan. Methods: From 2002 to 2011, confidential questionnaires were mailed annually to all Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists-certified training hospitals for data collection to determine the incidence and case fatality rate of PS-PTE patients. Data from 10,537 institutions in which a total of 11,786,489 surgeries had been performed were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney and Chi-square tests. Results: In total, 3,667 PS-PTE cases were identified. The average incidence of PS-PTE was 3.1 (2.2–4.8) per 10,000 surgeries, and the average case fatality rate was 17.9 % (12.9–28.8 %). The incidence of PS-PTE began to significantly decrease in 2004 compared with that of 2002 (0.0036 vs. 0.0044 %: p < 0.01). The case fatality rate temporarily increased toward 2005 (17.9 to 28.8 %); however, it gradually decreased since 2008 (15.7 %) and was the lowest (12.9 %) in 2011. Regarding the trends in prophylaxis, the rate of mechanical prophylaxis increased significantly in 2003 compared with that of 2002 (59.5 vs. 35.0 %: p < 0.01), and almost plateaued (73.1–83.1 %) after 2004. Furthermore, the rate of pharmacological prophylaxis started increasing in 2008 (17.6 %) and reached around 30 % after 2009 (28.8–30.2 %). Conclusions: The results of our 10-year survey study show that the incidence of PS-PTE decreased significantly since 2004, and the case fatality rate seemed to show a downward trend since 2008. Major changes in the distribution of prophylaxis in PS-PTE patients were observed.