Guidelines for prevention of venous thromboembolism in immobile patients secondary to neurological impairment.

BACKGROUND

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients and 7% of these cases are due to immobility secondary to a neurological impairment. Many guidelines are available to guide clinicians dealing with medical or surgical patients. However, and with the exception of spinal injuries, no guidelines are available to deal with other neurologically impaired patients at risk of VTE.

AIM: Our study aimed at gathering evidence from the literature to enable us to deal with the main controversial issues of VTE prevention. Guidelines will be formulated.

METHOD: A Clinical Standards Group is responsible for the development of clinical guidelines for the Greater Manchester Neurorehabilitation network with services covering a population of around 3 million. The development of VTE prevention guidelines started with the formulation of the main questions, then gathering evidence from the literature to address these questions. Wide consultation then took place. The guidelines were then put before the group for endorsement.

RESULTS

Answers for the main questions such as duration of thromboprophylaxis, TEDS and antiplatelets drugs use were suggested. The resulting document was summarized as a flow chart for use.

CONCLUSION

We feel that the proposed guidelines are a useful tool for clinicians as they reflect the evidence available from the literature at the moment.