Prevention and treatment of surgical thrombosis and thromboembolism.

Surgical, post-surgical deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or thromboembolism is common and potentially catastrophic. Surgical DVT may lead to either immediate post-surgical morbidity or long-term morbidity by way of post-phlebitic syndrome and chronic venous insufficiency. In addition, surgery-associated pulmonary embolism (PE) may lead to significant morbidity or post-surgical mortality. As this surgical complication is so common, both the North American Consensus Conference Committee, sponsored by the American College of Chest Physicians, and the International Consensus Conference Committee, sponsored by the International Society of Angiology, have convened periodically during the past two decades to analyze the highest-quality published studies and publish clear standards and guidelines for prevention and treatment of surgical DVT and thromboembolism. The latest North American Recommendations were published in 2004 and the latest International Committee recommendations were released in 2006. These recommendations are summarized in this chapter, which offers the clinician the latest guidelines for prevention and treatment of surgery-associated DVT and thromboembolism.