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American Journal of Medicine
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American Journal of Medicine
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Looking at the epidemiology of VTE, about 74% of VTE events that present in the typical clinical practice present as ambulatory or outpatients, but it is critical to realize that up to 42% of these VTE outpatients have undergone a recent surgery or hospitalization – meaning within the last 4 to 6 weeks (Figure 3).[1] VTE is 100 times more frequent in hospitalized patients than in the general population, and with no thromboprophylaxis, deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) occurs in 10% to 20% in medical patients and in up to 80% of high-risk surgical and critical care patients. There are many explanations for this, including release of procoagulant tissue factors, inflammation, and decreased mobility. Hylek E. Am J Med 2013; published on-line at http://education.amjmed.com/00000.
[1] Spencer FA, Lessard D, Emery C, Reed G, Goldberg RJ. Venous thromboembolism in the outpatient setting. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:1471-1475.