Risk of venous thromboembolism and implementation of preventive measures

To identify the frequency of risk factors for venous thromboembolism in hospitalized medical patients and the use preventive measures by healthcare professionals.

A descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study including medical charts of 369 adult patients hospitalized in the Medical sector of a university hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, for at least 48h from 2015 to 2017. Sociodemographic data, clinical risk factors for venous thromboembolism, contraindication and implementation of chemical prophylaxis, and the occurrence of the disease were investigated. The use of preventive measures was calculated by following the guidelines of the Brazilian Society of Clinical Medicine and the risk of venous thromboembolism according to the Padua Prediction Score (high risk ≥ 4 and low risk < 4).

The prevalence of venous thromboembolism was 7.3% (n = 27). All patients had at least one risk factor for venous thromboembolism, the most prevalent being reduced mobility (74.2%), active cancer (70.7%), infection (27.1%), recent surgery (21.6%) and age ≥70 years (20.0%). Chemical prophylaxis was implemented in 70.3% of high-risk patients without contraindication and mechanical prophylaxis was applied in only one of the cases with an indication.

All patients had at least one risk factor for venous thromboembolism. However, there was a low rate of implementation of preventive measures by health care professionals. Therefore, there is a need for multiple interventions, including admission and permanent education of nurses regarding risk and prevention, warning systems and outcomes audit.