Dextran 70 in prophylaxis of postoperative venous thrombosis. A controlled trial

A controlled prospective trial was carried out in a group of 80 women undergoing gynaecological surgery and thought to be at risk of developing postoperative venous thrombosis. The patients, who had been randomly allocated to prophylaxis with either dextran 70 or warfarin, were well matched in age, weight and other predisposing factors.In the warfarin group, 12 out of 40 patients developed deep vein thrombosis, six of these episodes being classified as major and six as minor. In the dextran 70 group, 4 out of 40 patients developed deep vein thrombosis, all of them minor. The protective effect of dextran 70 is significantly better than that of warfarin (P<0.01) as used in the present study.