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Updated: Mar 8, 2026

Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Screening for Proximal Lower Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis
Published on: February 10, 2023
Venous thromboembolic events: How low can you go?
Caroline E Jones1, Robert H Hollis1, Allison A Gullick1
1University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Surgery, USA.
Background:
We evaluated postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) chemical prophylaxis adherence to assess the preventability of VTEs.
Methods:
A case-control study was performed using the 2011-2015 ACS-NSQIP single institution database. Cases were identified as patients who experienced postoperative VTE within 30 days following surgery. Controls were matched 2:1 on procedure, age, and BMI. Association between inpatient chemical prophylaxis adherence and postoperative VTE was evaluated with conditional logistic regression.
Results:
Seventy-three cases were matched to 145 controls. Complete inpatient VTE chemical prophylaxis adherence did not differ between cases and controls (45.2% vs. 46.2%, p = 1.00). Odds of postoperative VTE increased if a patient's prophylaxis was interrupted (OR 6.34, 95% CI 1.82-22.13). However, 53.7% of instances of interrupted prophylaxis were medically justified by concern for bleeding, spine operation, or for additional upcoming procedure.
Conclusions:
Nearly half of patients who experienced postoperative VTEs received appropriate guideline-driven care. Most interruptions in chemical prophylaxis were justified medically. This further questions the preventability of postoperative VTEs and the utility of this outcome as a valid measure of hospital quality.
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