Pulmonary thromboembolism.

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