[Is the incidence of postoperative pulmonary thromboembolism in Japan lower than that in the western countries?].

Background: The Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (JSA) has investigated the incidence of postoperative pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) for several years.

Methods: According to the JSA project, we surveyed the annual incidence of postoperative PTE in Kanazawa Medical University Hospital in 2008.

Results: PTE was diagnosed radiographically in 6 out of 2339 patients, who were > or =15 years of age and had undergone surgical procedures under general anesthesia.