Resumen:
Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after elective thoracic surgery in patients receiving antithrombotic prophylaxis, and to evaluate the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) after lung resection. Patients and method: A descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study was designed. A total of 6004 patients were included. All patients underwent elective thoracic surgery. Prophylactic antithrombotic therapy was standardised in all cases. Patients were divided into four groups (low, moderate, high and very high) according to their thrombotic risk. The prevalence of VTE, deep vein thrombosis and PE in each group was calculated. The odds of PE for pneumonectomy was also calculated and compared to lobectomy. Results: Eleven patients (0.18%) had postoperative VTE. The mean age of this subset was 65.95 years; 90.9% were diagnosed with malignant neoplasm. Some 80.8% of patients in the series and all VTE cases were included in the high risk VTE group. VTE was more common in pneumonectomy (45.45% of VTE cases, odds ratio 4.6 compared to lobectomy). Conclusions: The prevalence of VTE in this series was 0.18% (1.31% in pneumonectomy patients). These figures could serve as reference values for thromboembolic disease in general thoracic surgery.
