Surgeons report fewer postoperative blood clots using risk-based preventive measures
Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - 06:19
in Health & Medicine
Surgery patients are much less likely to get a blood clot in the lower extremities or lungs if they receive preventive treatment based on their individual clotting risk, in addition to walking soon after the operation. Researchers reported that they lowered the frequency of deep venous thromboses -- blood clots in a deep vein, usually in a lower extremity -- by 84 percent two years after the prevention efforts began, compared with the results two years before the program. The occurrence of pulmonary emboli, or blood clots that travel to the lungs, fell by 55 percent in the same period.