THROMBOEMBOLIC DISEASE
Mean age of patients with pulmonary embolism is 70 years, with similar proportion of men and women.
In Spain there were 22,250 patients with pulmonary embollism during 2010. Of these, 8.9% died during admission.Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are two manifestations of the same disease: venous thromboembolism.
Deep vein thrombosis appears when the blood is clotting inside a vein. It usually occurs in the lower limbs, and it may produce pain, swelling and increased temperature in the calf. But sometimes it is absolutely silent.
As the blood inside a vein runs to the heart, and from the heart to the lungs, when a clot dettaches the vein wall it will go until the pulmonary arteries. Once in the lungs, it occludes one or more arteries: this is a pulmonary embolism.