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Symptomatic venous thromboembolism in Asian major trauma patients: incidence, presentation and risk factors

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Abstract

Background

Trauma patients are known to be at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), and pulmonary embolism (PE) is one of the preventable causes of mortality in trauma patients. The incidence of VTE in Asian populations was believed to be lower than in Caucasians, but the recent literature suggests that this is not the case. The purpose of this study was to assess the incidence of VTE in Asian major trauma patients and to examine the manner of presentation, use of prophylaxis and risk factors for VTE. While other studies of VTE have addressed general and high-risk populations within Asia, our study is one of the few to examine Asian major trauma patients.

Methods

Data for all patients with VTE were extracted from the Singapore General Hospital trauma database over a 10-year period from 1998 to 2007. Patient profiles and clinical factors were compared to patients without a diagnosis of VTE admitted with injuries in the same time period.

Results

There were 8,615 patients entered into our database in this 10-year period. Thirty-four patients had VTE, with an overall incidence of 0.39 %. Thirteen patients had pulmonary embolism, an incidence of 0.15 %. Of note, 30 % of patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) presented with fever alone without limb symptoms. Almost all 34 patients who developed VTE had either head injury, a spinal cord injury or a pelvic/extremity injury. Eighteen patients had head injury, 22 patients sustained pelvic or extremity injury, and three patients had spinal cord injury with paraplegia. Head injury and spinal cord injury with neurologic sequelae were statistically significant risk factors for VTE (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

The incidence of symptomatic VTE in the Asian trauma population is no lower than in the West. The incidence found in this study is similar to the incidence of VTE according to a study using data from the American national trauma data bank using similar study methods and with a similar study population. It is also higher than the incidence in the literature for general post-surgical Asian patients. Fever was the presenting factor in some patients and screening for VTE should not be forgotten when assessing fever in the trauma patient. The strong association between head injury, spinal cord injury and VTE confirms that we should pay special attention to VTE prophylaxis for our patients with these injuries.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ms. Stephanie Fook of the Singapore General Hospital Division of Research for her assistance in the statistical analysis. We affirm that our study was approved by our institution’s ethics committee and was, therefore, performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments, as well as the local laws governing research. The results in their current form in this study have not been published in any form in any journal, although preliminary results were part of an oral presentation at the Austrauma conference in Sydney, Australia, February 2011.

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Block 6 Level 7, Outram Road, Singapore, 169608, Singapore

    T. H. Wong, M. P. Koh & J. Ng

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  1. T. H. Wong
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  2. M. P. Koh
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  3. J. Ng
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Correspondence to T. H. Wong.

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Wong, T.H., Koh, M.P. & Ng, J. Symptomatic venous thromboembolism in Asian major trauma patients: incidence, presentation and risk factors. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg 39, 495–500 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-013-0292-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-013-0292-4

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