by Hratch Karamanoukian MD FACS DABVLM RVT RPhS
A poster presentation at the 2021 AVLS Meeting showed data in surgical patients regarding venous thromboembolism in surgical patients during the Covid 19 pandemic.
The data was presented by the group at Stony Brook Medicine. The researchers were Kristan Probeck ANP-C, Lisa Wilbert RN, Darlene Famiglietti RN, Annette Donnelly RN, Susan Boudreau RN, Doreen Elitharp ANP-C and Apostolos Tassiopoulos MD.
The data is not published to date.
Based on the observstion that a direct relationship was observed between elevated D Dimer levels and incidence of venous thromboembolism, the authors looked at how D Dimer levels can be used to determine if surgical patients received prophylactic or therapeutic anticoagulation for venous thromboembolism.
METHODS
D-DIMER levels were used to determne if surgical patients received therapeutic or prophylactic anticoagulation during hospitalization and at discharge.
Surgical patients who developed venous thromboembolism were treated using ACCP guidelines for a provoked DVT.
RESULTS
The authors showed that during the first wave of the Covid 19 pandemic (March to april 2020), the average venous thromboembolism rate amongst surgical patients increased by 50%.
Before the inititation of the enhanced VTE anticogulation policy, the venous thromboembolism rate in surgical patients increased to 4 % (from a baseline of 0.62%).
Since the initiation of the enhanced anticoagulation policy, the venous thromboembolism rate in surgicsl patients was reduced to 0.77 %.
The authors concluded that an "enhanced venous thromboembolism protocol should be considered in Covid 19 infected patients as they are considered high risk for devlopment of venous thromboembolism".
This abstract was presented at the 2021 American Vein and Lymphatic Medicine Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado (October 2021).