Thrombosis

In South Africa, 200,000 people suffer from deep vein thrombosis every year, and 20,000 die as a result of venous thromboembolism (VTE).¹

VTE is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.^2,3 Despite being preventable, pulmonary embolism contributes to 10% of all hospital deaths – making it the most common cause of preventable deaths in hospital patients.⁴

In many countries, including South Africa, medications to prevent VTE are underprescribed – resulting in unacceptable rates of morbidity and mortality.⁴

The most rational means of reducing morbidity and mortality for those at moderate- to severe-risk of VTE is the identification and primary prevention of risk factors (using risk assessment and stratification) with subsequent appropriate anti-thrombotic prophylaxis.¹

Without prophylaxis the overall VTE incidence in hospitalised patients (medical and general surgery) is 10–40%, and this climbs to an alarming 40–60% in patients undergoing major orthopaedic surgery.⁵

With routine VTE prophylaxis, however, fatal pulmonary embolism is uncommon in orthopaedic patients and the rate of post-operative symptomatic VTE within three months drops to only 1.3–10%.⁵