Yousef Ali, Srinivasa Rao, Koyilada Shiva Kumar
BACKGROUND Venous thromboembolism is a significant cause of increased mortality and disability and despite the availability of clinical guidelines and various risk assessment scores, thromboprophylaxis continues to be underutilised in the hospitalised patients. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the medical patients for venous thromboembolism risk and to assess the appropriate practice patterns of thromboprophylaxis. MATERIALS AND METHODS 100 medical inpatients admitted at P.E.S. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kuppam from November 2017 to April 2018 were randomly selected in this retrospective observational study and were assessed for VTE risk factors and effective prophylaxis patterns according to the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) evidence-based consensus guidelines. RESULTS As per the Padua prediction score in our study, 69% of the medical patients were at a high risk of developing VTE out of whom only 30.4% received effective thromboprophylaxis and 65.21% did not receive any thromboprophylaxis. 31% were at a low risk to develop VTE out of which 3% received effective thromboprophylaxis. CONCLUSION Effective Thromboprophylaxis is underutilised in the at-risk population thereby increasing the morbidity and mortality. This necessitates increasing the awareness about VTE risk. There is a strong need for a standard hospital policy for VTE risk assessment and effective thromboprophylaxis in hospitalized patients.
