Objective To investigate the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) after thoracotomy. Methods We analyzed the clinical data of 10 patients with PTE after thoracotomy treated from January 2011 to March 2015. Among them were 8 males and 2 females, with their age ranging from 51 to 73 years old, averaging 61. Six patients had lung cancer lobectomy, and 4 had esophagus carcinoma resection. All the 10 patients suffered sudden shortness of breath, chest pain and palpitation within the first 40 hours to 128 hours after surgery, and the physical examinations revealed tachypnea, drop of blood pressure and tachycardia. The PTE diagnosis was confirmed after using echocardiography, three-dimensional imaging of CT pulmonary angiography. All the patients accepted the treatment combination of low molecular weight heparin and warfarin. Results All the patients were cured without complications like chest or wound bleeding. Follow-up checks 3 months after the surgery showed no relapses. Conclusions Thoracotomy patients are of high risks of PTE. The diagnosis should be based on imaging examinations. Treatment combination of low molecular weight heparin and warfarin has a remarkable effect in treating PTE patients after thoracotomy, which also has a low rate of bleeding complications.