Acute Pulmonary Embolism: A Retrospective study at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Abstract Background: Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, yet its prevalence and clinical characteristics remain understudied in Ghana. This paper sought to estimate the proportion of symptomatic acute PE among clinic attendees and assess acute PE-related mortality.

Methods

Data of all symptomatic acute PE patients who visited the KBTH National Cardiothoracic Centre from January 2010 to the end of December 2020 were retrieved from the attendance records. Additionally, all acute PE-related mortality diagnosed at autopsy in the Department of Pathology from the beginning of January 2010 to December 2021 were retrieved from the autopsy logbooks. The data obtained were entered using IBM SPSS Version 24. The study used descriptive statistics to summarise continuous variables and cross-tabulations to show variations between categorical variables.