Risk assessing all patients on admission to hospital leads to identification of patients at high risk who need thromboprophylaxis (ie, treatments to prevent VTE). 10 Similar efforts have been made in the USA 11 and throughout Europe, recent evidence indicates that better management of the risk of VTE has reduced VTE-related mortality from 12.8 to 6.5 deaths per 100 000. Early results indicate that its efforts have led to reduced morbidity and mortality. In England, the national VTE prevention programme combined a mandate for assessment of patient’s risk on admission to hospital with best practice prevention guidelines.
Since hospitalisation increases the risk of VTE, it is important to consider if anything can be done to reduce the risk within this context. VTE can have a significant impact on a person’s psychosocial well-being with research to suggest that it can be a traumatic, life-changing event which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. 6 At a patient level, a review 7 identified an increase in cost of $14 000 for initial diagnosis and the first year of treatment for those with VTE compared with non-VTE affected patients. In 2017, a UK survey revealed the average cost of treating VTE was £938 357 for each local National Health Service (NHS) region. The financial cost of hospital-associated VTE is high. 4 Secondary to adverse drug events, VTE is the leading complication of hospitalisation worldwide. 2 Compared with baseline risk, hospitalisation has been correlated with an eightfold increased risk of VTE in medical admissions and a 21-fold increased risk in surgical admissions 3 with one study estimating that up to 50% of 625 cases of VTE in the community were related to hospitalisation. VTE affects one in 1000 people annually 1 and in England in 2018 VTE was recorded as a cause of death in 12 000 cases.
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a term that most commonly refers to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE).
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