OBJECTIVES: To assess average amount of life years lost due to death from pulmonary embolism (PE) confirmed by autopsy in patients hospitalized at internal medicine department. METHODS: In our prospective observation we analyzed all fatal cases at 2nd Department of Internal Medicine at University Hospital Bratislava,  where cause of death was verified by autopsy during the period from 1983 till 2005. Age, sex, clinical diagnosis and pulmonary embolus finding from autopsy were recorded for each case. Sex adjusted life expectancy for each calendar year (1983-2005) was used from official statistical sources available for Slovakia and lost years of life were calculated accordingly. RESULTS: There were 1375 deaths and in 70% (n=963) autopsy was performed during the observational period of 23 years. Fatal PE was found in 12% of cases (n=118), from which 64 cases were not clinically diagnosed prior to autopsy. Average age for group with confirmed PE (n=118) was 76.5 years (interval 38-96) with  54 (46%) males and 64 (54%) females. As calculated from life expectancy data, there were 939 life years lost due to fatal PE verified by autopsy. In average 42.7 years of life (95% CI 32.8-52.6) were lost each year. CONCLUSIONS: Results of our study shows that PE continues to be important cause of mortality in hospitalized patients, accounting for 12% of deaths at internal department. In average 42.7 years of life were lost each year in one medical department due to PE. Despite the advances in diagnostic methods and thromboprophylaxis of VTE during the past decades, lost of life years caused by fatal PE are still significant among medically ill patients in the period from 1983 till 2005.