Abstract
Background
Complications of venous thromboembolism are common among both medical and surgical hospital patients.
Objective
To identify what, if any, pharmacological prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism was given to cancer patients in hospital before and after implementation of a program to raise awareness of its importance.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study conducted in three phases at distinct times: before a program to raise awareness of the importance of prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism was implemented, during years when the program was being run, and 1 year after the end of the program. For statistical analysis, patients were classified as high risk or no risk and categorized on the basis of erroneous pharmacological prophylaxis, as follows: “needed prophylaxis, but were not given it”; “did not need prophylaxis, but were given it”; “were given nonstandard prophylaxis”; or “should not have been given prophylaxis, but were given it”.
Results
A total of 399 hospital patients were assessed: 56 before the awareness-raising program, 255 during the program and 88 1 year after the program was last run. Before any awareness-raising weeks, just 35.7% of the patients were being given the correct pharmacological prophylaxis; after awareness-raising weeks, the proportion of correct prescriptions increased to 63.9% (p < 0.001). After one year with no awareness-raising efforts, maintenance of pharmacological prophylaxis was no longer as effective, and there was a trend for the proportion of incorrect prophylaxis to increase (p = 0.081).
Conclusions
Pharmacological prophylaxis is given to a very small percentage of patients in hospital and programs are needed to raise awareness of its importance in the prevention of venous thromboembolism and continuous monitoring is needed to facilitate prescriptions.
Keywords:
cancer; thromboembolism; prevention
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