Burden of Deep Vein Thrombosis in the Outpatient Setting Following Major Orthopedic Surgery

BackgroundVenous thromboembolism (VTE) is a known complication of major orthopedic surgery (MOS) with important clinical and economic consequences. Recently published orthopedic guidelines have focused on prevention of pulmonary embolism as a primary outcome, but deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurrence should not be readily dismissed.ObjectiveTo describe the burden of DVT following hospital discharge for MOS by assessing the impact of DVT on costs and resource utilization from the Third-party payer perspective.MethodsRetrospective analysis used outpatient medical and pharmacy data from the PharMetrics Patient-Centric Database (January 1, 2002–March 31. 2006). Patients 18 years of age or older with a record of MOS were eligible for inclusion. Included patients were stratified based on the presence of a DVT during the first month after hospital discharge. Characteristics of the samples were described. The impact of DVT on total 6–month costs and resource utilization (readmissions, outpatient, emergency depart...