Fatal pulmonary embolism after total hip arthroplasty. Seasonal variation.
A review of records of 18,104 Charnley low-friction arthroplasties, performed during a 17-year period, shows a 0.7% incidence of fatal pulmonary embolism. Ninety percent occurred within four weeks of surgery and 71% were submitted to postmortem examination. There was a strong seasonal variation. The incidence from November through February was 1% as compared with 0.42% for the remainder of the year. The difference was statistically significant at 0.01 greater than p greater than 0.001 level. There was no significant seasonal variation in deaths from other causes.
Wroblewski
B M
BM
Centre for Hip Surgery, Wrightington Hospital, Wigan Lancs, United Kingdom.
Siney
P D
PD
White
R
R
D006622:Hip Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D012621:Seasons