Deaths caused by pulmonary embolism 2020 to 2022

FOI ref: FOI/2022/4526

You asked

Please can you provide the number of deaths by cause I26.9 (Pulmonary Embolism) by month for the following years:

• 2020
• 2021
• 2022 (to date where available)

We said

Thank you for your enquiry,

Unfortunately, we have not conducted analysis of this specific cause of death by month.

Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules.  

The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:

a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury

The ICD-10 cause code for Pulmonary embolism are:

• I26.0 - Pulmonary embolism with mention of acute cor pulmonale
• I26.9 - Pulmonary embolism without mention of acute cor pulmonale

Analysis of the above ICD-10 codes as the underlying cause of death is available as an annual output from our NOMIS Webservice. Please see the accompanying download associated with this request, named Pulmonary Embolism Deaths 2020 and 2021.

This data disaggregated by month, including provisional 2022 data, and deaths where pulmonary embolism was a contributory mention on the death certificate is available via our bespoke analysis services. Such extracts are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources, and agreement to costs under the ONS Open Data policy. If you would like to obtain a quote for this work, please contact the DASCH customer services team at Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.