[Thromboprophylaxis in post-surgical patients: review of 1,500 cases]

Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) are entities with a relative high frequency in post-surgical patients and can occur immediately after the surgical procedure or even two or three weeks after the surgical event. In the United States and Europe, DVT is present in over 5 million events each year, while PE is present in over 500,000 cases. The purpose of this study is to review the cases that undergo surgery during a period of three months (1,500 cases), from June 15th to September 15th, 2003, at the Angeles of Pedregal Hospital in Mexico City, in order to evaluate the type of risk that each one represents (International Consensus, 1997 ACCP, and the 2000 Mexican Consensus over venous thromboembolism (VTE) questionnaire), and the prophylaxis applied in each case, to be compared with international standards. The Angeles of Pedregal Hospital maintains a general prophylactic standard with its patients equivalent in number to the international standard; however, there is deficiency in the measures taken in orthopedic, high-risk, and very high-risk patients, where prophylaxis was low. It has also been called to our attention that the prophylactic measures taken were insufficient, both in the type of measure that was chosen and the combination of those that were applied, which in relation to the international recommendations were extremely low.