The Awareness of Venous Thromboembolism and Its Prophylaxis: A Survey Study

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this questionnaire study was to present the results of venous thromboembolism (VTE) questionnaire and compare the data with the literatureby having information about awareness level of VTE in anesthesiology and reanimation specialists and branch surgeons and prophylaxis protocols being performed bythem.Methods: A printed questionnaire consisting of seven questions was used for gathering information from the physicians from anesthesiology and reanimation andrelevant surgery clinics. The data were given as percentage in statistical analysis.Results: One hundred and twenty-three participants were included in the study. According to the study results, the participants stated that VTE was a serious cause ofmortality; risk factors were questioned in their clinics; they did not use a questionnaire for risk factor and they did not use a risk factor scoring system in risk factorquestioning (84%, 89.1%, 10.9%, 79%, respectively). Eighty-five percent of the participants seemed to perform VTE prophylaxis preoperatively and 76.9% of thempreferred to design both pharmacological and mechanical prophylaxis (MP) together. The second most common choice was that they used MP alone (14.6%). Sevenpoint three percent of the participants reported that they gave pharmacological prophylaxis alone and 1.2% of the participants stated that they did not plan any of theprophylaxis methods. The participants used low molecular weight heparin, unfractionated heparin and acetylsalicylic acid among pharmacological methods (70.7%,8%, 7%, respectively).Conclusion: Based on data obtained from this study, there is a need for a national risk assessment and thromboprophylaxis policy. Implementation of a change inpractice will have the potential to prevent or reduce morbidity and mortality associated with hospital-acquired thrombosis.