Abstract
The rationale for prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is based on the frequently
clinically silent nature of the disease. A number of risk factors for VTE have been
known for a long time, even if some of them are still controversial. Many studies
have been performed in the surgical field, and have established different risk classes
for VTE. Such risk stratification is especially determined by type of surgery and
to some extent by personal characteristics of patients, and it defines operations
at high, intermediate, and low risk for VTE. According to this classification, prophylaxis
of VTE is mandatory in some cases, less useful in others. Less information is available
on medical diseases, in which the clinical conditions and the intrinsic characteristics
of patients determine the class of risk for VTE. Different strategies for identifying
patients who should undergo prophylaxis have been proposed based on risk factor evaluation
in the individual patient. However, even if such an approach may be of help for the
physician, its validity is still impaired by the difficulty of taking into account
all of the variables possibly involved in VTE occurrence.
Keywords:
Venous thromboembolism - deep vein thrombosis (DVT) - pulmonary embolism (PE) - risk
factors - prophylaxis
