The risk of deep venous thrombosis: a computerized epidemiologic approach.

The appropriate use of prophylactic measures to prevent deep venous thrombosis is dependent on the ability of physicians to identify high-risk patients. This problem has been the subject of numerous epidemiologic reports compiled during the last several decades. Described herein is a computerized technique to condense the literature on this subject into a form better suited for practical application. This technique comprises an interactive program that calculates a patient's relative risk of developing a thrombus on the basis of a comparative evaluation of his medical profile. The computer then reports the patient's calculated relative risk along with other information that may pertain to his risk of deep venous thrombosis.