Individuals are at increased risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) following most major surgical procedures, which can lead to serious consequences as a result of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). This report includes background on VTE, a summary of clinical guidelines for thromboprophylaxis by surgery type, and our findings for six surgery cohorts among more than 500,000 inpatient and outpatient surgeries. In order to evaluate post-surgery thromboprophylaxis practice patterns, we analyzed 2017-2018 commercial claims data to identify the rate of anticoagulation use in the 30 days after discharge from select inpatient and outpatient surgeries in the areas of orthopedic, podiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, and spine. We identified apparent underutilization when comparing the rate of thromboprophylaxis use to guideline recommendations for several of the surgeries analyzed.

This report was commissioned by Precision Medical Products.