Abstract
Background
Although prophylaxis to prevent venous thromboembolism is recommended, it is rarely systematically performed in hospitalized patients.
Objective
To investigate whether hospitalized patients are given the correct VTE prophylaxis prescription by the physician responsible for them while in hospital, analyzed by risk category.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study based on analysis of medical records for patients admitted to the Hospital Santa Casa de Misericórdia, Curitiba, PR, Brazil, from March 20 to May 25, 2015. Patients on anticoagulants or with active bleeding were excluded. The following variables were analyzed: sex, age, type of healthcare coverage, specialty responsible for the patient, and patients’ risk factors to classify them as at high, moderate, or low risk of VTE. Use or not of prophylaxis was compared across prescriptions made by clinical and surgical specialties, between patients treated on the Brazilian National Health Service (SUS - Sistema Único de Saúde) and private health insurance, and according to patients’ risk of VTE.
Results
Eight of the 78 patients assessed met exclusion criteria. The remaining 70 eligible patients had a mean age of 56.9 years, 41 were male, 62 were treated on the SUS, 31 were treated by clinicians, and 39 were treated by surgeons. Just 46 (65.71%) patients were given prophylaxis for VTE. Among the clinical patients, 29 (93.5%) were given prophylaxis, against 17 (43.6%) in the surgical group (p < 0.001). Moderate and high risk clinical patients were more likely to be given prophylaxis than surgical patients (p < 0.001 and p = 0.002). There were no differences with relation to type of healthcare coverage (SUS vs. private healthcare).
Conclusions
At the Hospital Santa Casa de Misericórdia in Curitiba, surgical patients are less well protected from thromboembolic events than clinical patients.
Keywords:
venous thromboembolism; thromboembolic prophylaxis; pulmonary embolism