Summary: Clots, forming in the veins of the legs or pelvis, can migrate to the lungs and cause problems that range from no symptoms through mild problems to quite severe problems with pain, shortness of breath, changes in the heart's capacity to support your blood pressure, coughing up blood, and in fact death. High risk times for anyone to get these pulmonary emboli exist when there have been prior clots in the legs, active cancer, prior surgeries or hospitalization in general. Often pulmonary emboli can be prevented using medications, cuffs on the thighs and calves, or filters. Beginning the medicines before surgery allows less drug to be used and creates some protection from having emboli. Treatment of established pulmonary emboli are variable; frequently physicians use heparin for 5-10 days followed by coumadin for months. Even then the clot may not break down but it is adherent to the inside of the vein wall that they will rarely embolize (migrate to the lungs) after that period of time. New clots may form however and they will need active therapy. Pulmonary emboli are one of the major causes of worsening medical problems that appear to occur more frequently once in the hospital.
