Pulmonary Embolism in Medical-Surgical Critically Ill Patients

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the most dangerous complication of venous thrombosis. Objectively confirmed PE is a potentially life-threatening complication of critical illness. In medical-surgical critically ill patients, signs and symptoms are nonspecific, the clinical pretest probability may be low, and diagnostic tests may not be done or may yield ambiguous results. Therefore, PE is often undiagnosed and untreated; autopsy findings indicate …