BACKGROUND ABO blood type locus has been reported to be an important genetic determinant of venous and arterial thrombosis in genome-wide association studies. We tested the hypothesis that ABO blood type alone and in combination with mutations in factor V Leiden R506Q and prothrombin G20210A is associated with the risk of venous thromboembolism and myocardial infarction in the general populatio...

BACKGROUND Venous thromboembolism is a common complication of surgery. Although surveys of physician self-reported practices have suggested near universal support for routine use of measures to prevent venous thromboembolism, medical record auditing has demonstrated underuse. OBJECTIVE To assess physician practices of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in the community hospital setting. MET...

OBJECTIVE To comprehensively review and critically assess the available gynecologic surgery venous thromboembolism prophylaxis literature and provide clinical practice guidelines. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE and Cochrane databases from inception to July 2010. We included randomized controlled trials in gynecologic surgery populations. Interventions and comparators included graduated compression stoc...

In this week’s issue of The BMJ, Vinogradova and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj.h2135) report the results of a large study on the effects of combined oral contraceptives on the risk of venous thromboembolism, conducted in two large United Kingdom databases: the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and QResearch. The authors identified over 10 500 cases of VTE in women aged 15-49 years and ar...

BACKGROUND About 20% of patients with unprovoked venous thromboembolism have a recurrence within 2 years after the withdrawal of oral anticoagulant therapy. Extending anticoagulation prevents recurrences but is associated with increased bleeding. The benefit of aspirin for the prevention of recurrent venous thromboembolism is unknown. METHODS In this multicenter, investigator-initiated, doubl...

Although venous thromboembolism is an important cause of morbidity and mortality within the hospital, a significant proportion of at-risk inpatients do not receive measures known to reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. The objective of the present study was to determine whether a pharmacy-driven alert system would, compared to usual care, be associated with a higher r...

Venous thromboembolism is a major source of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The American College of Chest Physicians Antithrombotic Guidelines, 9th edition, includes a large number of clinical practice recommendations regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of venous thromboembolism. This succinct clinical review of these guidelines specifically focuses on the evaluatio...