Sukumarannair Sreekumar 1 , Thekkoot Vijayan Santhosh 2 , Mampalli Narayanan Brahmadathan 3 , Thiruvilwamala Govindan Nishad 4
BACKGROUND Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) is considered as a leading cause for morbidity and mortality following major surgical procedures. Incidence of DVT exhibit wide variation globally and its incidence in Indian population is limited. This prospective study aims to find out the incidence of DVT and associated risk factors in patients undergoing general surgical procedures in Kerala, a southern state of India. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a prospective study done on general surgical patients from February 2013 to July 2014 in a tertiary level teaching hospital. We screened the patients with Duplex scan to detect lower limb DVT on 2 nd , 4 th , 6 th and 8 th postoperative days following major general surgical procedures. RESULTS Of the 100 patients studied, 3 developed DVT postoperatively (3%). Use of Oral Contraceptive Pills (OCP) and postoperative immobilisation for more than 4 days were the significant associated risk factors. CONCLUSION Incidence of DVT is very low in South Indian patients undergoing general surgical procedures and routine use of anticoagulant prophylaxis is to be considered only if there are risk factors like use of OCP and prolonged postoperative immobilisation and in patients with known high risk comorbidities.
