Calculating patients' risk of deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) constitutes a serious threat to patients' general recovery. DVT in postoperative and bedridden patients is usually preventable and a thromboprophylaxis protocol based on risk assessment categories is strongly recommended. The Autar DVT risk assessment scale was developed to separate risk into no risk, low, moderate and high risk categories. Founded on Virchow's triad in the genesis of DVT, the scale is composed of seven categories of risk factors. When the scale was tested on a trauma/orthopaedic unit a cut-off score of 16 yielded 100% sensitivity, 81% specificity and a correlation coefficient of 0.98. The DVT scale is designed to allow application in diverse clinical specialties. It is recommended that nurses using the Autar DVT scale should evaluate for themselves the best cut-off score to achieve maximum predictive accuracy.