Incidence and risk factors for hospitalization-related venous thromboembolism

Abstract

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a general term used to describe deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). Since VTE is known to occur frequently in hospitalized patients, this study aimed to clarify the incidence and risk of VTE during hospitalization. Subjects and Methods: We calculated the incidence of VTE among adult patients admitted to Shimane University Hospital within 1 year. The inclusion criteria were cases where VTE was diagnosed after admission, and clinical treatment was considered necessary. Results: The number of patients with hospitalization-related VTE was 55 (0.41%) out of 13534, including eight (0.06%) patients with PTE. VTE occurred in patients older than 40 years, and 42 (76.4%) of the included patients were !65 years old. The incidence rate in women (0.53%) was higher than that in men (0.29%). According to the clinical department, the incidence rates were 2.53% in orthopedics, 1.55% in the department for collagen disease, and 1.39% in advanced trauma centers. When classified by disease, arthritis/arthropathy accounted for 6.40%, followed by 2.01% of traumatic fractures, and the number of affected patients with cancer was 18 (32.7%). Twenty-eight (50.9%) patients developed VTE within 10 days of admission. However, the aggravation risk factors could not be determined. Conclusion: The incidence of hospitalization-related VTE cases in the elderly is higher. In the present study, one-third of the observed VTE cases occurred in patients with cancer, while arthritis/ arthropathy or traumatic fractures were often observed in other cases. Therefore, there is a need to continually assess VTE risks to prevent or treat VTE at an early stage.