Postmortem Demonstration of the Source of Pulmonary Thromboembolism: The Importance of the Autopsy

Copyright © 2011 Gina Elhammady et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Periprostatic or paravaginal venous thromboses are rarely considered clinically as sites of clot origin in patients with pulmonary thromboembolism. The majority of emboli have been demonstrated to originate in the veins of the legs. This report raises awareness of pelvic vein thrombosis as a potential source of pulmonary embolism that is rarely considered or detected clinically, and which usually requires postmortem examination for recognition. It also reviews the possible routes emboli may take to reach the lungs. 1