Improving Patient Compliance With Mechanical Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis

Venous thromboembolic events (VTE) occurring in the postoperative period are serious yet preventable conditions. Multiple studies have demonstrated that the risk of postoperative VTE can be successfully reduced with mechanical prophylaxis and/or chemoprophylaxis. Patients are often noncompliant with mechanical prophylaxis in the postoperative period. We performed a prospective nonrandomized controlled study to determine if providing an educational pamphlet would increase knowledge and compliance with mechanical VTE prophylaxis. Patients receiving the educational pamphlet were more likely to rate their knowledge of VTE prophylaxis as "very good" when compared to the control group (73.1% vs. 30.2%, p < .001). Patients were also more likely to be compliant with mechanical prophylaxis in the educational group (53.9% vs. 30.2%, p = .014). Our study demonstrated that providing a simple educational pamphlet increased patient knowledge regarding VTE prophylaxis and increased compliance with mechanical prophylaxis.