Venous Thromboembolism in Moderate Risk Patients

The incidence and significance of venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism as a complication in hospitalized patients treated medically or surgically is well established. The incidence of venous thrombosis varies considerably between patient groups based upon numerous factors in addition to the severity of the medical illness or surgical procedure. These other factors include; age of patient, the presence of congestive heart failure, history of prior thromboembolism, etc. The risk of venous thrombosis progressively increases with the number of these risk factors. (Table 1) Therefore, it is possible to categorize patients on the level of their risk for venous thrombosis which is of value not only to identify patients most in need of prophylaxis but also to determine the prophylactic measure because in general the greater the thrombogenic stimulus the more intense the antithrombotic prophylaxis required.