Monday March 17, 2008
DVT prophylaxis - our poor record card !!


Dr. Alpesh Amin and coll. from School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, looked into thromboprophylaxis rates in US medical centers: and guess what? We failed miserably !

Methods: Patients included were

• 40 years old or more,
• with a length of hospital stay of 6 days or more, and
• had no contraindications for anticoagulation
  

A total of 196,104 discharges from 227 hospitals met the inclusion criteria.


Results:

• The overall VTE thromboprophylaxis rate was 61.8%, although the appropriate thromboprophylaxis rate was only 33.9%.
• Of the 66.1% discharged patients who did not receive appropriate thromboprophylaxis, 38.4% received no prophylaxis,
• 4.7% received mechanical prophylaxis only,
• 6.3% received an inappropriate dosage, and
• 16.7% received an inappropriate prophylaxis duration

(based on ACCP recommendations)


Conclusions: This study highlights the low rates of appropriate thromboprophylaxis in US acute-care hospitals, with two-thirds of discharged patients not receiving prophylaxis in accordance with the 6th ACCP guidelines. More effort is required to improve the use of appropriate thromboprophylaxis in accordance with the ACCP recommendations.



Reference: click to get article / abstract

Thromboprophylaxis rates in US medical centers: success or failure? - Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Volume 5 Issue 8 Page 1610-1616, August 2007