Symptomatic In-Hospital Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism Following Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Among Patients Receiving Recommended Prophylaxis

Abstract

Postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism, is an important safety issue in acute care hospitals.¹ Quiz Ref ID Without prophylaxis, VTE (both symptomatic and asymptomatic) is the most frequent surgical adverse event after infections.² In the absence of prophylactic therapy, the incidence of postoperative VTE is particularly high after orthopedic surgery: the incidence of DVT (as detected by screening tests) varies from 42% to 57% after hip arthroplasty and from 41% to 85% after knee arthoplasty; the incidence of pulmonary embolism varies from 0.9% to 28% after hip arthroplasty and from 1.5% to 10% after knee arthroplasty.³ Although asymptomatic VTE is more common than symptomatic VTE, available data demonstrate that symptomatic VTE is clinically important, while the clinical relevance of asymptomatic VTE is less clear.^3-5