Utilisation of the simplified pulmonary embolism severity index in prognostication of pulmonary embolism – a retrospective study in a regional hospital in Hong Kong

Pulmonary embolism is the most severe form of venous thromboembolism that can result in significant morbidity and mortality, especially if left untreated. Guidelines suggested the use of clinical scoring systems to stratify patients’ risk of mortality, which helps to guide subsequent management strategy. Simplified pulmonary embolism severity index is a well-validated prognostic score that predicts the risk of short term mortality of pulmonary embolism and studies showed that low-risk patients could be safely managed as outpatients. However, local studies on the use of prognostic scores including simplified pulmonary embolism severity index in management of pulmonary embolism are lacking.