Postoperative pulmonary embolism (PE) is a severe complication of major cancer surgery. We investigated patients who underwent major cancer surgery at Sichuan Cancer Hospital (2016 to May 2022). Postoperative PE was divided into early and late phases according to whether PE was diagnosed within or after 3 days after surgery, respectively. Patients with early and late PE were compared to patients without postoperative PE in a 1:2 ratio and matched for age (± 3 years), type of cancer, and cancer site. Logistic regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis were used to identify the risk factors for early and late PE, respectively. The early and late PE groups included 36 and 46 patients, respectively. LASSO logistic regression showed that early postoperative PE was significantly associated with body mass index (BMI), intraoperative hypotension time, and postoperative D-dimer levels (P < 0.05). Postoperative D-dimer levels and severe infection were independent risk factors for late PE (P < 0.05). BMI and intraoperative hypotension time are risk factors for early PE, whereas severe infection is a risk factor for late PE. In addition, high postoperative D-dimer levels were strongly associated with both early and late PE.
Li et al. (Thu,) studied this question.