o Study the Prevalence of DVT in Patients with Surgeries around Knee

Abstract

Introduction: The presence of thrombus within deep veins of the extremity is termed as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). If not recognized deep venous thrombi can embolize to pulmonary arterial circulation which can be fatal within few hours of onset. The thrombosis occurs due to inappropriate activation of the process of normal hemostasis as a response of the blood to injury. Study was done to find out the prevalence of DVT in patients with surgeries around knee. Material and Methods: The study was a non analytical cohort study. The study was conducted in the department of Orthopedics, St Stephen's Hospital Tis Hazari,New Delhi between oct '12 to Dec '14. A detailed history, clinical and radiological examination along with investigations was carried out in all 74 patients. 74 cases were included in study out of which 51 fracture patients and 23 arthroplasty patients. 16 cases of VTE were seen with highest prevalence in patients with fracture around knee. Results: The overall prevalence of VTE was found to be 22%. Clinical DVT was 8% and subclinical DVT was 14%. In other words,62% of DVT was subclinical while 38% was clinical. Among the patients with DVT, 10 cases i.e 71% cases had proximal DVT and rest of 4 cases ie 29% cases had distal DVT. Conclusion: Conservatively treated cases shows statistically significant more risk for VTE than operated cases.In our study, 63% cases of diagnosed VTE were clinically asymptomatic as compared to 37% of clinically symptomatic cases.Among the operative cases, use of tourniquet with DVT was assessed. But since the number of patients were too less, no adequate correlation can be made out.