Pulmonary thromboembolism is a common cause of in-hospital death. In moderate or
high risk patients undergoing laparotomy, acute and long-term mortality can be effectively
reduced with an appropriate prophylactic drug treatment, while in low-risk patients
undergoing laparoscopy, the correlation between the thromboembolism risk and the procedure
itself, as well as potential benefits of thromboprophylaxis are, at present, unclear.
Here we report the case of E., a 49-year-old woman with patent foramen ovale, considered
to be at low risk of thromboembolism, who experienced a sudden cardiopulmonary
arrest following a laparoscopic cholecystectomy and died four days later. .
The purpose of this case report is to highlight the necessity of continuing large sample
studies on the correlation between laparoscopic surgery and thromboembolism in lowrisk
patients