Table 2.

Demographic Characteristics for Patients with a Postoperative Pulmonary Embolism of Known Location (n = 271) in the Pulmonary Vasculature

Variable	Location of PE			Total (n = 271)	Central versus peripheral PE, p value
	Central (n = 33)	Segmental (n = 164)	Subsegmental (n = 74)
Clinical and pathologic characteristics
Age at PE (y)	65.1 ± 12.2	63.4 ± 12.8	62.1 ± 13.4	63.2 ± 12.9	NS*
Male	46.7%	36.2%	35.5%	37.2%	NS
BMI	28.1 ± 5.2	27.1 ± 5.7	28.9 ± 8.9	27.7 ± 6.8
Type of surgery, %
Thoracotomy	15.2	12.8	13.5	13.3
Laparotomy-abdominal	57.6	26.8	31.1	31.7
Laparotomy-pelvic	21.2	54.3	44.6	47.6
Laparoscopy/thoracoscopy	0	4.3	10.8	5.5
Soft tissue resection	6.1	1.8	0	1.8
Cancer site, %
Thoracic	12.1	9.1	14.9	11.1
Colorectal	12.1	13.4	8.1	11.8
GI (other)	9.1	6.7	8.1	7.4
Hepatobiliary/pancreatic	0.0	0.6	0.0	0.4
Genitourinary	24.2	21.3	23.0	22.1
Gynecologic	21.2	36.0	39.2	35.1
Soft tissue tumor	6.1	3.7	1.4	3.3
Other	0.0	3.7	0.0	2.2
Pathologic stage, %					NS*
0	5.3	0.0	2.4	1.1
I	21.1	26.2	20.4	24.0
II	21.1	19.6	18.4	19.4
III	42.1	27.1	34.7	30.9
IV	10.5	27.1	24.5	24.6
PE symptoms and severity
Complication grade, %					< .001
1	0.0	0.6	6.6	2.2
2	53.3	84.1	85.5	81.0
3	13.3	12.9	6.6	11.2
4	0.0	1.2	0.0	0.7
5	33.3	1.2	1.3	4.8
Clinical symptoms, %
Shortness of breath	67.9	48.5	58.7	53.4	.041
SaO2 < 92%	74.1	36.7	40.5	41.6	< .001
Heart rate > 100 bpm	85.2	61.7	61.3	64.0	.007
Chest pain	14.3	8.7	10.8	9.9	NS
Hemoptysis	0.0	0.0	1.3	0.4	NS
Clinical DVT	17.9	10.5	6.8	10.2	NS
ICU admission	39.3	19.3	20.0	21.6	.018
Cardiopulmonary arrest	27.6	5.6	8.0	8.7	.013
Concurrent DVT**	56.3	37.5	22.2	34.8	NS
Anticoagulation. %
Pharmacologic prophylaxis	60.7	56.6	55.3	56.7	NS
Bleeding complications	13.8	14.5	14.5	14.4	NS
Followup. %
Second VTE event	6.9	11.0	9.2	10.1	NS
30-d PE mortality	33.3	4.9	5.4	8.5	< .001

^*Continuous variables compared with t-test for independent samples.

BMI, body mass index; DVT, deep vein thrombosis; GI, gastrointestinal; ICU, intensive care unit; VTE, venous thromboembolic event.