Seminar on Thromboembolism

E ARLY rising from bed and walking preclude the protracted period of inertia which traditionally follows in the wake of surgery and permit the prompt resumption of normal activity. Many postoperative complications are favorably effected by such a program. Unfortunately, the incidence of thrombosis, of suspected thrombosis, and of thrombosis and embolism together is unaltered. Fatalities from massive pulmonary embolism, however, are less common than they were before the revival of early postoperative ambulation. In support of these statements the following clinical study of 1,519 major surgical cases is presented. All of the patients have been under the author’s personal supervision or observation and, in addition, all the tables have recently been meticulously reviewed by him or by Dr. Brantley Holt to whom he is indebted for much assistance with the collection of these data.