Inflammation and the host response to injury a large-scale collaborative project: patient-oriented research core standard operating procedure for clinical care X. Guidelines for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in the trauma patient.

Standardization of VTE prophylaxis may offer significant benefit in the care of the critically ill trauma patient. Current randomized, prospective controlled trials on the effectiveness of various VTE prophylaxis remain lacking. The potential problems with currently available trials, associated with the potential ramification of bleeding and HIT in subsets of trauma patients, require caution in adopting an extremely aggressive approach to VTE prevention. However, improved understanding and administration of VTE prophylaxis appears to be a promising and prudent approach to decreasing morbidity and mortality in injured patients. The goal of this standard operating procedure (SOP) was to standardize the management of injured patients enrolled in the Inflammation and Host Response to Injury Large-Scale Collaborative Program across multiple clinical sites. It is based on the available medical evidence and expert opinion when evidence is not available. The steps in this SOP represent one method of attempting to reach the goal of VTE prevention. Additional prospective randomized controlled trials will likely provide additional information that may stimulate further revisions of this SOP as the VTE prevention in critically ill trauma patients is better defined.