« Back to guidelines under development
VTE Prevention in Emergency General Surgery Patients2024
Type: New Evidence Based Review (EBR)
Category: Emergency General Surgery
Committee Liaison: Asanthi M. Ratnasekera, DO, FACS
Team leader(s)
Statement of Need:
Decades of research have gone into formulating modern-day VTE prophylaxis regimens in injured patients. For example, there are nine (9) separate EAST Practice Management Guidelines that discuss the diagnosis, prevention, and management of VTE in trauma patients. Unfortunately, thromboembolic disease in emergency general surgery (EGS) patients has received a fraction of this attention, and to date, these patients still frequently receive antiquated, empirically-dosed prophylaxis regimens that long ago fell out of favor for trauma patients. Physiologically, trauma and EGS patients have comparable risk for VTE events, and recent studies suggest that EGS patients may benefit from the same VTE prophylaxis strategies that have been rigorously studied in trauma patients, including BID dosing, anti-Xa monitoring, and weight-based prophylaxis regimens, though at current, this has not been rigorously studied or proven in the literature. A summative, comprehensive review of current VTE prevention strategies in EGS patients would be beneficial as an accessible guide for clinicians out in practice, and it would help steer future research endeavors on this topic, which serves to benefit hundreds of thousands of patients annually.
Team Members:
Michael Cripps, MD (Senior Team Leader)
Kristy Hawley, MD, MPH
Whitney Jenson, MD
Joanna Etra, MD