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      Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis for hospitalized medical patients, current status and strategies to improve

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          Abstract

          Venous thromboembolism (VTE), comprising life-threatening pulmonary embolism (PE) and its precursor deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), is commonly encountered problem. Although most patients survive DVT, they often develop serious and costly long-term complications. Both unfractionated heparin and low molecular weight heparins significantly reduce the incidence of VTE and its associated complications. Despite the evidence demonstrating significant benefit of VTE prophylaxis in acutely ill medical patients, several registries have shown significant underutilization. This underutilization indicates the need for educational and audit programs in order to increase the number of medical patients receiving appropriate prophylaxis. Many health advocacy groups and policy makers are paying more attention to VTE prophylaxis; the National Quality Forum and the Joint Commission recently endorsed strict VTE risk assessment evaluation for each patient upon admission and regularly thereafter. In the article, all major studies addressing this issue in medical patients have been reviewed from the PubMed. The current status of VTE prophylaxis in hospitalized medical patients is addressed and some improvement strategies are discussed.

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          Most cited references33

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          Prevention of venous thromboembolism: American College of Chest Physicians Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines (8th Edition).

          This article discusses the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and is part of the Antithrombotic and Thrombolytic Therapy: American College of Chest Physicians Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines (8th Edition). Grade 1 recommendations are strong and indicate that the benefits do or do not outweigh risks, burden, and costs. Grade 2 suggestions imply that individual patient values may lead to different choices (for a full discussion of the grading, see the "Grades of Recommendation" chapter by Guyatt et al). Among the key recommendations in this chapter are the following: we recommend that every hospital develop a formal strategy that addresses the prevention of VTE (Grade 1A). We recommend against the use of aspirin alone as thromboprophylaxis for any patient group (Grade 1A), and we recommend that mechanical methods of thromboprophylaxis be used primarily for patients at high bleeding risk (Grade 1A) or possibly as an adjunct to anticoagulant thromboprophylaxis (Grade 2A). For patients undergoing major general surgery, we recommend thromboprophylaxis with a low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH), low-dose unfractionated heparin (LDUH), or fondaparinux (each Grade 1A). We recommend routine thromboprophylaxis for all patients undergoing major gynecologic surgery or major, open urologic procedures (Grade 1A for both groups), with LMWH, LDUH, fondaparinux, or intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC). For patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty, we recommend one of the following three anticoagulant agents: LMWH, fondaparinux, or a vitamin K antagonist (VKA); international normalized ratio (INR) target, 2.5; range, 2.0 to 3.0 (each Grade 1A). For patients undergoing hip fracture surgery (HFS), we recommend the routine use of fondaparinux (Grade 1A), LMWH (Grade 1B), a VKA (target INR, 2.5; range, 2.0 to 3.0) [Grade 1B], or LDUH (Grade 1B). We recommend that patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty or HFS receive thromboprophylaxis for a minimum of 10 days (Grade 1A); for hip arthroplasty and HFS, we recommend continuing thromboprophylaxis > 10 days and up to 35 days (Grade 1A). We recommend that all major trauma and all spinal cord injury (SCI) patients receive thromboprophylaxis (Grade 1A). In patients admitted to hospital with an acute medical illness, we recommend thromboprophylaxis with LMWH, LDUH, or fondaparinux (each Grade 1A). We recommend that, on admission to the ICU, all patients be assessed for their risk of VTE, and that most receive thromboprophylaxis (Grade 1A).
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            Trends in the incidence of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism: a 25-year population-based study.

            The incidence of venous thromboembolism has not been well described, and there are no studies of long-term trends in the incidence of venous thromboembolism. To estimate the incidence of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism and to describe trends in incidence. We performed a retrospective review of the complete medical records from a population-based inception cohort of 2218 patients who resided within Olmsted County, Minnesota, and had an incident deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism during the 25-year period from 1966 through 1990. The overall average age- and sex-adjusted annual incidence of venous thromboembolism was 117 per 100000 (deep vein thrombosis, 48 per 100000; pulmonary embolism, 69 per 100000), with higher age-adjusted rates among males than females (130 vs 110 per 100000, respectively). The incidence of venous thromboembolism rose markedly with increasing age for both sexes, with pulmonary embolism accounting for most of the increase. The incidence of pulmonary embolism was approximately 45% lower during the last 15 years of the study for both sexes and all age strata, while the incidence of deep vein thrombosis remained constant for males across all age strata, decreased for females younger than 55 years, and increased for women older than 60 years. Venous thromboembolism is a major national health problem, especially among the elderly. While the incidence of pulmonary embolism has decreased over time, the incidence of deep vein thrombosis remains unchanged for men and is increasing for older women. These findings emphasize the need for more accurate identification of patients at risk for venous thromboembolism, as well as a safe and effective prophylaxis.
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              Venous thromboembolism risk and prophylaxis in the acute hospital care setting (ENDORSE study): a multinational cross-sectional study.

              Information about the variation in the risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) and in prophylaxis practices around the world is scarce. The ENDORSE (Epidemiologic International Day for the Evaluation of Patients at Risk for Venous Thromboembolism in the Acute Hospital Care Setting) study is a multinational cross-sectional survey designed to assess the prevalence of VTE risk in the acute hospital care setting, and to determine the proportion of at-risk patients who receive effective prophylaxis. All hospital inpatients aged 40 years or over admitted to a medical ward, or those aged 18 years or over admitted to a surgical ward, in 358 hospitals across 32 countries were assessed for risk of VTE on the basis of hospital chart review. The 2004 American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) evidence-based consensus guidelines were used to assess VTE risk and to determine whether patients were receiving recommended prophylaxis. 68 183 patients were enrolled; 30 827 (45%) were categorised as surgical, and 37 356 (55%) as medical. On the basis of ACCP criteria, 35 329 (51.8%; 95% CI 51.4-52.2; between-country range 35.6-72.6) patients were judged to be at risk for VTE, including 19 842 (64.4%; 63.8-64.9; 44.1-80.2) surgical patients and 15 487 (41.5%; 41.0-42.0; 21.1-71.2) medical patients. Of the surgical patients at risk, 11 613 (58.5%; 57.8-59.2; 0.2-92.1) received ACCP-recommended VTE prophylaxis, compared with 6119 (39.5%; 38.7-40.3; 3.1-70.4) at-risk medical patients. A large proportion of hospitalised patients are at risk for VTE, but there is a low rate of appropriate prophylaxis. Our data reinforce the rationale for the use of hospital-wide strategies to assess patients' VTE risk and to implement measures that ensure that at-risk patients receive appropriate prophylaxis.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Ann Thorac Med
                ATM
                Annals of Thoracic Medicine
                Medknow Publications (India )
                1817-1737
                1998-3557
                Oct-Dec 2010
                : 5
                : 4
                : 195-200
                Affiliations
                Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan
                Author notes
                Address for correspondence: Dr. Hikmat Abdel-Razeq, Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Chief, Section of Hematology and Medical Oncology, King Hussein Cancer Center, Queen Rania Al Abdullah Street, PO Box 1269, Amman 11941, Jordan. E-mail: habdelrazeq@ 123456khcc.jo
                Article
                ATM-5-195
                10.4103/1817-1737.69104
                2954373
                20981179
                3617de8c-a8b8-47f9-be74-49b50da7a9ca
                © Annals of Thoracic Medicine

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 16 February 2010
                : 08 May 2010
                Categories
                Review Article

                Respiratory medicine
                heparin,deep vein thrombosis,pulmonary embolism,thromboprophylaxis,low molecular weight heparin

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