Abstract
Venous thromboembolism is a condition that includes both deep vein thrombosis and
pulmonary thromboembolism. Pulmonary thromboembolism is a condition that is familiar
to forensic pathologists for its common cause of sudden unexpected death. Fatal pulmonary
thromboembolism following deep vein thrombosis has been previously reported as a consequence
of major ankle injury but not following minor ankle injury. Here, I report the case
of sudden unexpected death in a 54-year-old female without known underlying risk factors
for venous thromboembolism, except for a history of minor injury at her left ankle,
which possibly caused local vascular wall damage with subsequent deep vein thrombosis
and eventual massive pulmonary thromboembolism.
Level of Clinical Evidence
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 20, 2019
Footnotes
Financial Disclosure: None reported.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
The information contained in this report has not been published elsewhere. However, this work was presented in part at the 9th Asian Forensic Sciences Network Annual Meeting and Symposium 2017 (AFSN 2017), which was held at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic campus, Singapore, September 5–8, 2017, and published in the abstract book of the conference.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 by the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. All rights reserved.
